Glass V FlO l 
Book j\%b At 



HISTORY 

? 

OF THE 



AZORES, 



OR 



WESTERN ISLANDS; 



CONTAINING A N ACCOUNT OP THE 



GOVERNMENT, LAWS, AND RELIGION, 



THE 



JWamur*, (Etxtmonitz, antr ©Ijaracttr of tfye $nf>Mtmttii 



AND DEMONSTRATES 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE VALUABLE ISLANDS 



TO THE 



BRITISH EMPIRE. 



1 LLUSTT? ATED BY MAPS AND OTHER ENGRAVINGS. 



llontiotn 

PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, PATERNOSTER ROW ; 
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 



^ '? Printed by J. OUU-t, Crown-court, Fleet-street,' Londor-, 



TO 

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
FRANCIS, EARL OF MOIRA, 

MY LORD, 

From want of other employment 
in these Islands, I have bestowed much of my time 
in exploring their condition and capacities, and in 
conveying the information thus obtained to a respected 
Friend in my native Country. The result of my 
inquiries, in its present form, I respectfully presume 
to recommend to your Lordship's notice, from the 
conviction that, being equally zealous for your Prince 
and your Country, you will receive with complacency 
a work whose object is to advance the interests of 
both. 

Your Lordship will find that it comprizes a 
description of facts as interesting as extraordinary ; 



DEDICATION. 



accompanied with observations upon many local 
circumstances, not generally known, because not 
hitherto described. Happy should I be, were it 
more worthy of your Lordship's acceptance. 

Having the honour to be, My Lord, with the 
highest considerations of respect, 

Your Lordship's 

Most truly humble, 

And very obedient servant. 

T. A. — Captain Light Dragoons. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

PREFACE ii 

LETTER I. 

Introductory 1 

LETTER II. 

Tntroductory . . <■ 6 

LETTER III. 

General remarks on the present condition of the Azoreana, and the means of 
improvement 11 

LETTER IV. 

On the advantages of establishing the independence of the Azores, under the 
protection of the British government 17 

LETTER V. 

Remarks on the history of the islands . . . . 25 

LETTER VI. 

Remarks on the history of the islands, continued - - 32 

LETTER VII. 

General description of the island of St. Miguel, or St. Michael 39 



vi CONTENTS. 

LETTER VIII. 

St. Michael's- -its general conformation, &c 43 

LETTER IX. 

Description of St. Michael's, continued — Its towns, &c. — Means of its meliora- 
tion 51 

LETTER X. 

Description of St. Michael's, continued 57 

LETTER XL 

St. Michael's continued. — Mode of cultivation, &c 63 

LETTER XII. 

St. Michael's continued. — Cultivation of wheat, beans, and other grain — advan- 
tages arising from its import into Great Britain 72 

LETTER XIII. 

St. Michael's continued. — -Picturesque view of a tour made through the island 77 

LETTER XIV. 

The Porto do Ilheo of Villa Franca. Remarks on the original formation of the 
islands — on volcanoes, earthquakes, &c. 84 

LETTER XV. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued 92 

LETTER XVI. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued. 101 

LETTER XVII. 

St. Michael's continued.— =Baths of the Furnas — Red River— The whirlpool . 107 



CONTENTS. 



vn 



LETTER XVIII. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued. — The caldeiras — The muddy crater — 
The perforated rock — The hot and cold stream — The hot and cold springs — 
• The baths , .116 

LETTER XIX. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued— Subterranean spirits 124 

LETTER XX. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued.— Pico de Per 130 

LETTER XXI. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued — Porto Fermoza 130 

LETTER XXII. 

Tour through St Michael's continued. — Porto Fermoza 14S 

LETTER XXIII. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued. — Monks of Fermoza ...... 148 

LETTER XXIV. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued.— Ribeira Grande . . . . , . .152 

LETTER XXV. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued. — Ribeira Grande— Hot and cold baths . 158 

LETTER XXVI. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued.— Porto Fermoza . 165 

LETTER XXVII. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued.— Ribeira Grande— Caldeira there haunted 
— Peasant's description of it— Remarkable trial 172 

LETTER XXVIII. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued.— Ribeira Grande— Character of the padre 
guardian of the Saint Franciscans — Platonic love of the nuns 180 

LETTER XXIX. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued.— Ribeira Grande— Description of a mo- 
nastic concert — Education of the nuns jgg 



viii CONTENTS. 

LETTER XXX. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued. — Decription of the country from 

Ribeira Grande to the Vale das Cete Cetades , . 196 

LETTER XXXI. 

Tour through St. Michael's continued. — Description of the inhabitants of 

Cete Cetades and their employments '. 203 

LETTER XXXII. 

General remarks on the climate of St. Michael's . . . \ 211 

LETTER XXXIII. 

Effects of the climate of St. Michael's on its inhabitants 218 

LETTER XXXIV. 

Manners and principles of the inhabitants of St Michael's 225 

LETTER XXXV. 

Visit to the convent of Esperanza 232 

LETTER XXXVI. 

Visit to the convent of Esperanza continued 240 

LETTER XXXVII. 

Story of the nuns of Esperanza continued 248 

LETTER XXXVIII. 

Manners and society of the inhabitants of St. Michael's 258 

LETTER XXXIX. 

General Description of St. Mary's 267 

LETTER XL. 

General Description of the Island of Tercera 276 

LETTER XLL 

General Description of the Islands of Graciosa and St. George 28G 

LETTER XL1I. 

General Description of the Island of Fayal . , 294 

LETTER XLI1I. 

General Description of the Flores 303 



PREFACE. 



(BY THE EDITOR.) 



ON the introduction of a work of this nature 
to the public, it seems requisite to give some previous 
explanation of the design ; to point out the general and 
particular uses for which it is intended ; and the advan- 
tages that may arise from reading it with attention. 

The plan of the undertaking is more comprehensive 
than that of voyages and travels in general : that is to 
say, of those which describe similar countries, without 
assisting the reader in conjecture, or which do not phi- 
losophize upon facts. We may presume to add, that 
herein the author has attempted to combine science with 
description, and instruction with amusement. 

Travel has, in our days, become a part of education ; 

B 



11 PREFACE. 

and for this reason : — it experimentally instructs those 
who have gained as much previous knowledge, as they 
were capable of acquiring from books, as well as those 
who do not possess this happy and peculiar privilege. 
It is equally advantageous to those who have it in their 
power to indulge the pleasing emanations of mind, and 
who can thus add the experience of the world to the 
theory of the schools, as it is to those, the far greater 
part of mankind, to whom the enjoyments of a cultivated 
intellect are unknown. 

In order to gratify each of these classes, the design of 
the author appears to have been not only to convey all 
the information he possibly could upon the subject, but 
also to convey it in the most plain and simple manner. 
He, firstly, inquires what are the natural commodities of 
the islands ; the value and demand for such commodities 
in other parts, the manner in and the price at which 
they are disposed of by the natives : Secondly, he enu- 
merates their manufactures, observing whether they are 
employed in commodities of their own growth, or in 
such as are imported from abroad ; strictly examining 
into the number of hands employed, the nature of their 
employments, and the advantages which their industry 
affords either to themselves, in particular, or to the 
Portuguese, as a nation, in general. Thirdly, he inquires 



PREFACE. Hi 

into the state of the ports and harbours ; the convenience 
and inconvenience of each, in point of situation. This 
leads him to consider fourthly, the number of seamen 
employed therein, on which he appears to think the 
wealth and power of a maritime people, in a great 
measure, depend. The last point he considers is, the 
propriety of viewing the Azores as British colonies and 
plantations ; with respect to which, he teaches us to 
examine how far they may contribute to the advantage 
of Britain ; the true use of colonies being their assistance 
in the support of that government by which they are 
protected, or the country from which they are derived. 
Thus much for the commercial part of this work. 

He next proceeds to show the original foundation of 
the government, and the subsequent changes that have 
happened in it ; these are the subject of his general 
history. 

His descriptions of the properties and phenomena of 
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and boiling springs, 
which follow, will, we trust, be deemed original and 
interesting. 

But, it is in a commercial, or rather in a political, 
point of view that the author appears anxious to exhibit 

b 2 



IV PREFACE. 

the Azores to the British nation ; although he has 
diversified the subject with interesting anecdote and 
picturesque description : and he has been induced the 
more particularly to do so, because no traveller, no 
author, has heretofore described the Azores : or, to his 
knowledge, treated upon the same subject. 

The idea of placing the Western Islands under the 
immediate protection of Britain is far from being a mere 
empty scheme, or visionary project. Portugal owes this 
country vast sums of money, and may be happy to dis- 
solve the debt by a transfer of the sovereignty. This 
would at once change the general face of the Azores, and 
open such new branches of trade to England, as would 
amply compensate for the loans made in support of the 
Braganza cause. The measure would not only enhance 
the glory of the British name, but contribute to the 
common benefit of all the islands. It would afford to 
the English that satisfaction which is truly noble, from 
imparting the means of dispelling superstition, enthu- 
siasm, poverty, and ignorance ; of admitting the inha- 
bitants of the Azores to those rights of which they are 
at present dispossessed, or which have been withheld, 
from their first establishment to the present time. It 
would raise nearly half a million of people from a state 
of comparative slavery, to a state of independence, to 



PREFACE. V 

industry, and political strength. We should then see 
the Azores, which now appear, for the most part, as so 
many deserts, smile again in their native beauty. It 
would be easy to expatiate much further on so agree- 
able a subject, but what is already advanced may be 
sufficient to awaken the consideration of the intelligent. 

We conclude these remarks with the clear conviction 
that the measure proposed by the author should be at- 
tempted ; and are equally persuaded, if the change does 
not very speedily take place, it will infallibly take place 
in a time not far distant ; when the beams of liberty 
and justice, of liberality and happiness, radiating from 
Britain, shall illuminate these islands. 

JOS. T. HAYDN. 

October 31st, 181 1. 

* # * The island of Madeira, in most respects, lies 
within the sphere of those arguments which relate to the 
union of the Azores with Great Britain. This island has 
already been well described ; particularly by Mr. Bar- 
row, in his narrative of a voyage to China. 



LETTERS, 

LETTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

It is an observation, not less true than common, 
that voyages and travels are, of all kinds of reading, 
the most entertaining and instructive ; as they serve 
to acquaint us with the produce and condition, the 
religion and government, the manners and customs, of 
the different nations of the world, and with the curi- 
osities of the countries which those nations respectively 
inhabit. They present to us at once a body of natural and 
of civil history ; and insensibly tend to enlarge our minds 
and to free them from narrow and illiberal prejudices. 

Numerous works of this description have, at various 
times, been offered to the public ; but none of them, 



2 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

so far as I have been able to learn, have given any ra- 
tional or well-digested account of the Azores. And yet 
the Azores constitute, at this moment, a subject highly 
interesting to the public curiosity, both from the com- 
mercial advantage it is of to this country, and the pro- 
bability that it may, in a short time, be included amongst 
the colonies of the British Empire. 

In requesting your attention to a strbject of such 
extraordinary importance, and so intimately connected 
with the commercial welfare of England, I pledge myself 
to encroach on your time as little as possible. My 
object is neither to indulge in declamation, nor to engage 
in controversy. I shall simply describe the track I have 
pursued ; and, if I digress, my object will be found 
rather to instruct than to amuse. My letters, not too 
long to weary, shall be intended to illustrate the history, 
and explain the manners, customs, habits, and pecu- 
liarities, of the Azoreans ; many of which have suffered 
little by the lapse of ages. My fidelity, too, shall 
appear in every page : it is no part of my intention to 
surprize with extraordinary incidents, or to alarm with 
hair-breadth escapes. The narrative, therefore, can 
raise neither wonder nor astonishment ; but, I trust, it 
may afford such entertainment as truth and observations, 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 3 

clothed in an unornamented style, are generally found 
to yield. 

I am justly sensible, notwithstanding, that the subject 
is of an extensive and difficult nature. To paint a coun- 
try with precision, requires not only great delicacy of 
taste, but repeated opportunies for observation. Two 
different landscapes may be formed by the same mate- 
rials, as they are influenced by a bright or a gloomy sky. 
Distant views may be splendidly exhibited, or entirely 
concealed. Even the same objects may assume a dif- 
ferent appearance, as they are illuminated by a rising 
or a setting sun. To give an accurate portrait of Nature 
in the light and situation in which he beheld her, is all 
that can be expected of him who pretends to delineate 
her features. When he presumes to correct them, his 
attempt becomes more dangerous and difficult. He 
must then be instructed by art, and enlightened by taste. 
He must be able to combine, in his imagination, those 
beauties which are widely scattered over the face of 
the creation, and form them into a perfect whole. But 
this is to change, not to follow, Nature. The celebrated 
statue of the Venus de Medicis had never existed, if 
the statuary had confined his imitation to any single 
beauty. That surprizing effort of human genius owes 
its perfection to the collected charms of a number of 

c 



4 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

individuals. The painter, therefore, should not be per- 
mitted to bring together all the pleasing features of 
Nature for the distinct purpose of constituting a natural 
landscape. Nothing is to be allowed to the imagination. 
He should confine himself to the spot on which he stands, 
and introduce nothing alien to the scene presented. The 
eye of truth should never be offended, merely that the 
picturesque eye may be gratified, 

I may also remark, that the power which the imagi- 
nation has over these natural scenes is not greater than 
the power which they have over the imagination. No 
country, described by art, however beautiful, however 
adorned, can distend the mind like just and simple 
scenery. The wild sallies of untutored genius often 
strike the imagination more forcibly than the most 
correct effusions of a cultivated mind. Though the 
eye, therefore, might take more pleasure in a view of 
the Azores in a picturesque light ; that is, adorned by 
the hand of Art, yet I much doubt whether such a view 
would have that strong effect on the imagination as when 
rough, as it shall be from my pen, with all its bold irre- 
gularities about it ; as, when beauty and deformity, 
grandeur and horror, mingled together, strike the mind 
with a thousand opposing ideas, and, like chymical 
combinations of an opposite nature, produce an effer- 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 5 

vescence which no harmonious mixtures could possibly 
produce. 

But, as it is in a commercial light, in particular, that 
I wish to recommend the Azores to the attention of the 
British government, I shall open that point of view in 
my next letter, and at the same time expose the motives 
which induce me to submit this correspondence to your 
judgment and consideration. In the mean time, I have 
the honour to remain, with the most sincere sentiments 
of esteem and respect, 

Your attached Servant, 



c 2 



LETTER II. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

IF a life spent in the zealous cultivation of 
moral virtue, and the most assiduous endeavours for 
promoting both public and private happiness, deserve 
my veneration, it is that of yours ; the animated mind 
to which I have, in the genuine spirit of freedom, pre- 
sumed to address this correspondence. 

I confess that it affords me pleasure, and, perhaps, gra- 
tifies my vanity, to be permitted to address my com- 
munications to a member of the British parliament, 
whose system of policy is at length arousing the spirit 
of our country. The political and commercial map 
of Europe you have attentively examined ; and the 
annals of past ages you have studiously explored, to 
enlighten the present age. But the clear comprehension 
of a general subject, which involves a variety of separate 
parts ; that lucid arrangement which, by happily group- 
ing particulars, fixes them on the retina of the intellect ; 
that copiousness of diction, elegant as becomes the leader 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 7 

of a band of patriots, but not too much adorned for a 
man of business, which distinguishes you in general ; 
were never displayed to greater advantage than in the 
debates on the decline of commercial credit. On no 
former occasion did you discover, and in a stronger degree 
to the astonishment or impression of your audience, your 
profound acquaintance with the system of European 
politics ; the great national views which suggest them- 
selves only to a great and virtuous mind ; the rapid 
glance of argument, and the electric flash of decision. 
Animated with the breath of better times, your lustre 
appeared to increase, while you delivered those effusions 
of a luminous intellect, and a correct imagination. 
Your arguments were at once marked with the lumen 
purpureum juventce, and with the sage maturity of man- 
hood. Characters of this kind, that rise to honourable 
celebrity, without forsaking their station, are those to 
which a work of political and commercial consequence, 
may, with propriety, be addressed. 

If the chief symptom of wisdom which nations can 
discover, is to accommodate themselves to their situa- 
tion, the wisest measures that we can at present adopt, 
are certainly such as tend to augment our revenue, to 
improve our industry, and give a wider circulation to 



8 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

trade and commerce. An improved intercourse with the 
Azores, presents a fair and most inviting field for this 
purpose. The vicinity of the situation, the frequent 
returns of profit, and a country that brings more than 
half a million of inhabitants within the sphere of our 
industry, form, however, the least prominent features 
of the prospect. What I mean to propose, embraces 
advantages which a political philosopher would rather 
wish for, than expect to see fulfilled. And the reason 
is, that the political philosopher individually, as well 
as the public, generally, is completely ignorant of the 
extent and capacity of the Azores. He judges of these 
islands from their political degradation, and not from 
their geographical condition. Whereas, the geographi- 
cal condition of the Azoreans has not been so neglected 
by Providence, nor is their climate so frigid, their soil 
so infertile, their minds so stolid, that they could have 
been so long secreted from the world, so long in an 
outcast condition, had their islands met with that ge- 
nerous treatment which nature, humanity, and just 
policy, would have allowed them. What has been the 
use made of these interesting islands for the last two 
centuries ? They have only answered to counte- 
nance, or to serve, a wretched government, the system 
of which destroys the seal of social security, and places 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 9 

the public liberty, the industry of the poor, the property 
of the rich, and the talents of the learned, under the 
arbitrament of a cabinet, which has long since involved, 
in the vortex of venality, all the freedom of, and means 
of improvement from, the Azores ; removing, at the same 
time, every stimulating principle to personal ambition. 
The government, under the direction of this impolitic 
cabinet, turned the Azores into a headless and a heartless 
trunk ; annihilated the rights of the inhabitants ; withered 
their capacities and their prospects ; and granted them, 
in return, the indigent blessings of their sovereignty and 
protection ! Believe me, Sir, long since would the 
Azores have cast off the slough of barbarism ; long since 
would they have emerged from the oblivious pool, and 
awakened to life and to recollection, had not a smooth, 
fair, and florid, civilization been checked, by the filth, 
neglect, infamy, and indigence, which too commonly 
proceed from all tyrannic and ecclesiastical governments. 
It is contrary to the nature of things and to human 
nature, that either capital or speculation can ever fix 
their choice upon islands where there is no political 
liberty ; and, of consequence, no personal security ; 
where virtue, talent, and property, are annually expa- 
triated ; where all the regular distinctions of rank in 
society sink under ecclesiastics and the military ; and 



10 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

where the ruling power draws every thing of use or 
ornament, in the colonies, to one central point of its 
state. 

In my next, Sir, I shall make some deduction from 
this argument : at present, I have only leisure to entreat 
you to consider me as 

Your grateful Servant. 



LETTER III. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF 
THE AZOREANS, AND THE MEANS OF IMPROVEMENT. 

IT was my intention to have shewn in my 
last letter, that aristocratical arrogance, and political 
as well as religious intolerance, annexed to the extreme 
of political servility, have been the causes from which 
the Azores have been so lowly appreciated by the inha- 
bitants, and so little known to the rest of the world : I 
shall, however, now assume a more pleasing task, and 
endeavour to point out a system for the improvement 
of the islands, and for raising the population to the rank 
of freemen. 

The existence of these islands, Sir, has been, for a 
long and gloomy period, confined to a hollow sound in 
a pompous title. Nature, habit, education, virtuous 
pride, honourable ambition, all concur to make me 
detest this miserable state of political degradation, and 
to urge the honour and propriety of making the islands 

D 



12 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

free and independent ; and of placing them under the 
protecting shield of the British government. Above 
all to confer on the inhabitants the name of a country ; 
the happiness of a home. Country I consider as the 
great and virtuous spring and incitement to every thing 
generous in speculation, or magnanimous in action. 
With a consciousness of this sentiment, a man becomes, as 
a member of the community, capable of every thing good 
and great ; without it, he loses much more than half of 
his value in the estimation of others, and even in his 
own. Without a country, a people have none of that 
cementing principle which constitutes the character, the 
honour, and courage, of a nation. May I ask — What have 
such a people ? They have a number, but they have 
not a nation. Without any inherent principle or motive 
of common action ; unattached to each other ; degraded 
in their own estimation ; contemptible and contemned 
in that of others ; they degenerate into the infamous and 
contented subjects of mockery or maltreatment, as it 
suits the humour of their different governors. As a 
man, therefore, entertaining a fixed abhorence, an in- 
stinctive antipathy, to those systems which tend to 
degrade mankind, I would recommend that you Sir, 
should countenance the plan of a political constitution for 
these islands, which will approximate to the nature and 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 13 

effects of independency ; to the good old British consti- 
tution. A constitution, which is the prolific parent of 
public credit and domestic comfort ; which embraces a 
limited prerogative and a privileged people ! 

As to the mercantile effects of the measure, although I 
have ample testimony of their importance, I would 
disdain to make them the basis of the question. Yet, 
as profit and loss constitute the incorporating principles 
by which the question is ultimately to be judged, I shall 
here stoop to shew, that it is for the interest of England 
to turn her affections, her protection, and her under- 
standing, to the advantage of the people of the Azores. 

From the superior industry, ingenuity, and capital, 
which the protection of England would immediately 
create, the instant advantages to the Azores are obvious 5 
nor are the future contingent. One line of liberal policy 
and active industry, pursued for ten years, would make 
these islands the envy and admiration of surrounding 
nations, and raise them from the indigence, uncertainty, 
and fluctuation, in which they have so long re- 
mained. Speculation, which has often been so pernicious 
to their commercial adventurers, would be prevented ; 
while illicit trade would be checked, a fair intercourse 

d 2 



14 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

with the world would be encouraged ; and, while the 
revenues of individuals increased, the resources and ca- 
pital of the islands would be augmented. 

In former times, Sir, when Great Britain held the 
balance of Europe, and was the guardian and the umpire 
among contending nations, her feelings, as well as her 
politics, prompted her to adopt the Roman maxim, to 
oppose the strong, and protect the feeble, " Parcere 
subjectis, et debellare superbos." From these views, 
and this spirit, she should shed her protecting lustre over 
the Azores, and lift them into individual distinction, and 
general renown. 

An objection to this may, perhaps, be made, referring 
to the moral spirit of the inhabitants. You may be 
told, that the love of glory is here unknown : that the 
Azoreans are mere animals, who consider only what will 
fatten them. This objection I have already removed. 
The latent spirit of the people has ceased to operate — or, 
rather, it has been palsied under the arbitrary hand of 
their present government. They are, however, a good 
and an honest people, who prefer the olive to the laurel, 
and who seek for distinction by industry rather than by 
arms. An innocent people, as eminent in the humble 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C, 15 

vale of pacific life as the warrior and the hero in the 
stormy regions of blood and warfare. But, inspire them 
with enthusiasm, with an enthusiasm for country, the 
great spring of all intellectual and moral excellence, and 
you will find them no strangers to the refined and even 
best virtues of society. Inspire this enthusiasm, and 
another race of people shall arise in the Azores, that may 
infuse a new principle of health into the battered consti- 
tution of the mother country, and form a glorious epoch 
in the history of the British isles. It will also, Sir, 
if you support and succeed in this measure, transmit 
your name to posterity as the founder of a new state, 
and add to your renown as the friend of freedom and of 
mankind. 

The Azoreans are, at length, impatient of tyranny ; 
they are only awaiting a signal to throw off the yoke. 
Situated, however, as their sovereign at present is, it 
would not be generous to countenance any step manifest- 
ing a tendency to insurrection or force. On the con- 
trary, I would offer the Prince Regent the most solid 
advantages in exchange for the independence of these 
islands : receiving their freedom from his dominion, in 
the first instance, for the blood and treasure which 
England has shed for his cause in Portugal. If his 



16 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

highness will relinquish the Madeiras with the Azores, 
we may then, with propriety, surrender all claim to 
the great debt which he owes to the British government 
for his removal to, and final settlement in, his American 
empire. 

These would be permanent advantages to Portugal. 
The beneficial results to England I shall detail in an 
early communication. 

Remaining, &c. &c 



LETTER IV. 



ON THE ADVANTAGES OF ESTABLISHING THE INDEPEND- 
ENCE OF THE AZORES, UNDER THE PROTECTION OF. 
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 

IN accelerating the emancipation of the 
Azores from the yoke under which they at present labour, 
I wish it to be explicitly understood, that it is far from 
my desire to see them augment the territories of the 
British dominions. 

The British empire has already progressed to a colos- 
sal greatness, that alarms Europe, and threatens dimi- 
nution and destruction even to her own possessions in 
the east and in the west. A philosophical inquirer into 
human affairs may well hesitate, concerning the perma- 
nence and stability of dominions that are stretched to 
such preternatual dimensions, and that comprehend such 
large divisions of the two most celebrated continents of 
the globe. An empire so extended contains the prin- 
ciples of discord and disunion within itself ; the jealousy 
of the world will awake ; nothing but. military force. 



18 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C 

the ascendant of a vigorous character, and the charm of 
a great name, can preserve such multifarious and discon- 
tiguous nations under one form of government. 

It is an eternal political truth, confirmed by the expe- 
rience of ages, that all measures taken to extend the 
boundaries of states, already arrived at an excessive 
greatness, are so many steps towards their declension 
and downfal. The great empires of Asia, in ancient 
times, and the extensive monarchy of Charlemagne, are 
memorable instances of states, strained beyond their 
natural dimensions, which have fallen with the same 
facility with which they arose. Since the time of Charles 
and James, Great Britain has been happy in a succession 
of sovereigns equally distinguished by their ambition 
and their policy ; but, whenever the sceptre of Britain 
shall pass into the hands of a wicked, weak, or profligate, 
Prince, subdivisions will be made of the British empire, 
and new kingdoms, states, and governments, will rise 
upon its ruins. 

The proposal, then, Sir, which I submit to your judg- 
ment on this subject, cannot contribute to the difficulties 
into which England is falling, nor can it be interpreted 
into the dream or vision of a political projector. I do 
not invite the people of the Azores to rebel against their 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. l§ 

lawful sovereign. I do not tempt the English govern- 
ment to violate their faith with the house of Braganza, 
and to assume an authority which is now inefficient and 
nugatory in that house. All I propose is, to purchase 
freedom and happiness for the islands in exchange for 
the blood and treasure which England has expended 
in the Braganza cause. To raise the Azores to the dig- 
nity of self-government, and to that concord, order, and 
harmony, which are unknown to a people subject to the 
rule of a distant, uncertain, and fluctuating, administra- 
tion. And, after bestowing on them these transcendant 
blessings, to secure them by a disinterested and honour- 
able protection. Perhaps the best system of government 
for the Azores would be an establishment, similar to 
that of the late Swiss republic *• the nine islands to com- 
prize a confederacy under the marine and military pro- 
tection of England ; holding, at the same time, the 
entire direction of their civil, ecclesiastical, and domestic 
polity. 

If these important arrangements can be accomplished 
for the Azores, my hopes of a golden age, yet to come, 
will revive ; but if the English nation has not spirit to 
attempt, and resolution to prosecute, the plan ; if, sunk 
in sensuality, and enervated by pleasure and dissipation, 
it sees not the chains, it hears not the complaints, of the 

E 



20 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

suffering people ; if it presumes on its riches, its com- 
merce, its learning, its arts, its navy, and its power ; if 
it vaunts itself on the pre-eminence it holds among the 
nations of the earth ; if it can be swayed by no consider- 
ations of humanity and independence ; then shall I live 
and despair. 

Should England refuse to prosecute and accomplish 
the plan, on the mere principles of generosity and in- 
dependence ; I pledge myself to prove, before I close 
this correspondence, that it is to her interest to 
execute it, and to piit it into an immediate, active, and 
efficient, operation. The following is an epitome of 
the arguments on which I predicate this opinion : — 

1. England is in a novel and tremendous stale: most tre- 
mendous, because its novelty does not seem to surprize, 
nor its terror to alarm. The sword and the sceptre of 
Europe are conveyed into one hand. Hosts more nu- 
merous than the crusaders; an empire more powerful 
than the Roman ; talents and force, such as never before 
were united ; are all associated against you. The boun- 
daries, the thrones, the laws of nations, are changed ; all 
is changed, and still changes; and every change shuts 
you from the continent, and is intended for your ruin. 
Under circumstances so calamitous, it is of the first ne« 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 21 

cessity to establish an independent state ; to open new 
channels for your commerce ; new resources for your 
revenue, and a depot, to which all nations may repair 
for home and colonial produce, without being subject to 
the arbitrary power and malignant dominion of France. 
For, situated as the Azores are, between Africa, America, 
and Europe, avast and a productive trade could always 
be carried on either in a legal or. an indirect mode, 
particularly with Africa and America, 

2. As Britain is destitute of wine colonies, it must 
find an alliance with the Azores extremely favourable ; 
the western islands being calculated to produce a vast 
quantity of wine, and of a quality proper for the con- 
sumption of the West Indies. 

3. But a principal advantage resulting to England 
from the accomplishment of this plan would arise from 
making the islands a military depot : that is, making 
them a place of alterative for the constitution of the 
soldier, in order that, when he progresses to Africa or to 
the West Indies, his blood may be prepared to meet the 
vicissitudes of those destructive climates. There is no 
doubt .but that this measure of precaution would save 
the sum of millions and the lives of thousands ; it being 
well known that the inhabitants of the Azores resist the 

e 2 



22 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

contagions of the coast of Africa, and of the banks of the 
Maranon, when the native of the continent of Europe 
shuts up and perishes. 

4. As the central Island of Terceira, is eminently 
adapted for the discipline and subsistence of troops, it 
would be profitable always to keep such an army there, 
as would meet the demands of the Cape of Good Hope, 
and of the East and the West Indies. Troops are too 
commonly sent from England unseasoned and unexpe- 
rienced ; and often under circumstances of delay, that 
renders their succour unavailing. Whereas, they could 
be sent from the Azores in time to act on emergency, 
and in a state of health and discipline, calculated for the 
service of the state, notwithstanding the action of the 
sun, in any clime. I trust, that this will be thought an 
important consideration. 

5. It having been found, after an experience of several 
years, that the establishment, at New South Wales is 
attended by an enormous expense, and by results adverse 
or contrary to its intended purposes ; might it not be 
highly advantageous to make the Azores supply the 
use of that distant settlement ? You will, perhaps, im- 
mediately reply, that the execution of this plan would 
encourage, rather than deter men from, the commission 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 23 

of crimes ; as it would hold out to them, freedom, self- 
government, and prospects of ambition, in a temperate 
climate. But nothing of the kind is held out. Servi- 
tude, labour, and confinement to islands whence they 
could never escape, would be the conditions proposed. 
And, as the harbours of Fayal, Terceira, and St. Mi- 
chael, stand in need of considerable labour and improve- 
ment, gangs of convicts could there be perpetually kept 
in useful and profitable employ. 

6. And, as the islands abound in waste lands, proper 
for the cultivation of hemp, the vine, &c, &c, it might 
be deemed just and right to promote such convicts to 
that duty, as conducted themselves best in the construc- 
tion of harbours, roads, and buildings, proper for the 
naval and military service of the country. 

Thus, Sir, have I given a rapid sketch of the advan- 
tages to be derived, from having these islands placed 
under British protection. In doing this, in the place of 
exaggerating, I have omitted many circumstances of 
profit : I have said nothing of their capacity to supply 
the West Indies with provisions, in case of a rupture 
with America, nor of their ability to advance your inte- 
rests in various other respects. These are particulars 
which are to be shed through the whole of my corre- 



M GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AZORES, &C. 

spondence ; and to that correspondence I take leave to 
refer you for a refutation of all the objections which will 
be opposed to the advantages I have here presented to 
your mind. 

In pursuing this subject, I see the necessity of request- 
ing a patient attention. I must not only describe the 
present, but also the original, character of the islands. I 
must, in short, yet compose some pages on philosophical 
and political occurrences, before X can amuse by domestic 
history and passing events. 



LETTER V. 



REMARKS ON THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS. 

IN proportion as I proceed in this correspondence, I 
become more and more conscious that my undertaking 
is a novelty, attractive only to those whose sentiments 
and feelings accord with my own. To speak what I feel, 
tell what I see ; to sketch, with a true but rapid pencil, 
the state of the Azores ; and, in considering the evils 
and the remedies, to deliver an unbought and unbigoted 
opinion on the measure of their emancipation : to doubt 
whether I shall be heard, and, whether, if heard, I may 
not offend ; to do my duty not without hope, and not 
without fear ; those are my objects, this my situation : 
the inevitable fate of contemporary truth. 

The difficulties to which I allude, and which obstruct 
my design, arise principally from the want of documents 
proper for the formation of a memoir on the past state 
of these islands. I have made the most wide and dili- 
gent research, and I have not been able to collect or to 
collate a single page on the subject. . No •■ traveller, no 



26 REMARKS ON THE AZORES. 

geographer, no historian, has deigned to notice these 
islands in any other manner than, in giving a nomencla- 
ture of their number, and a vague and transient view of their 
present condition and character. Cook, Hawkesworth, 
Barrow, and other circumnavigators, confine themselves 
to this meagre description ; and Salmon, Guthrie, with 
other geographers, are content in record ng the mere 
names and existence of the islands. This is a matter of 
astonishment, inasmuch as the world has been ransacked 
and over-run by the curious in search of novelty, and 
for theatres on which to display the ambition of the 
voyager, and the erudition of the naturalist. Even the 
little islands, known by the name of Tristan da Cunha,* 
are described by Dalrymple, in a quarto volume. And 
many other insulated portions of the globe, far inferior 
to the Azores, in all the circumstances of wealth, popu- 
lation, and magnitude, have been delineated in the most 
minute and pompous manner. 

I must, here, however, observe, that I obtained, through 
the means of Lord Strangford at Lisbon, a large Quarto 
Work, entitled a History of the Azores, or Western 
Islands. But, Sir, judge of the mortification which I 



* We shall notice these islands hereafter. Ed. 



HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 27 

suffered, when I discovered the work to be the produc- 
tion of a visionary priest ; of a man totally unacquainted 
with the various circumstances he recites, and whose 
principal design in writing it was, to impose upon the 
credulous, and to propagate political servility, religious 
superstition, domestic calumny, philosophic error and 
untruth. The general and particular descriptions are 
unnatural and incredible, and supported by appeals to 
prophecies., and miracles, and various gifts of the spirit, 
which render their fallacy more glaring, and more subject 
to be disputed. The author also pretends to have been 
himself an eye and an ear witness of the wonders he 
records. He is, therefore, full of inconsistencies and 
contradictions ; and his miraculous facts are impossible, 
when we consider the priestly power to which he ascribes 
them ; and improbable, if we attend to the contemptible 
design and occasion of them. In short, the writer 
appears to have been dishonest and partial, and equally 
careless of easy confutation and of certain infamy. He 
seems capable of feeling no sentiment, of uttering no 
thought, but those which would have befitted a monkish 
polemic of five centuries back. His very language and 
composition partake of this complexion of mind, and 
bear ample testimony that the holy father was designed 
for some of those ages which are gone by ; when the 
religious zealot evinced the purity of his faith by the 

F 



28 HISTORY OF THE AZORES, 

foulness of his language ; and displayed the Christian 
charity of his heart by the intolerance and persecution of 
his spirit. 

Thus, then, Sir, am I cast upon my own observation 
and research for my intended History of these Islands. 
It is, however, among the few felicities of the undertak- 
ing, that my account cannot be obscured by literary 
lumber, or filled with trash already imposed upon the 
public. In fact, the public knows nothing more of the 
Azores, or Western Islands, than that the}r extend from 
37° to 39° 45' N. latitude, and from 25° to 31° west lon- 
gitude, and in the midway between Europe and Ame- 
rica : that they are nine in number, and are named, 

1. Santa Maria, or St. Mary: 4. St. Jorge, or St. George: 7. Pico : 

2. St. Miguel, or St. Michael's : 5. Graciosa : S. Flores : 

3. Terceira : 6. Fayal : 9. Corvo. 

It is also known, that they were discovered, about the 
middle of the 15th century, by Joshua Vander Berg, of 
Bruges in Flanders ; who, in a voyage to Lisbon, was, 
by stress of weather, driven to them ; and that, on his 
arrival at Lisbon, he boasted of his discovery ; on which 
the Portuguese, in that spirit of enterprize, so strongly 
marked in their adventures of the day, immediately set 
sail and took possession of them, calling them Azores, 



CO wo 

, f-,i..r~~~A''-" K ' k 



At FLO 111! if 



l|l LongitntlP WCSI f'rniii Gr.-c-iiwirli . 3 0 



2 A. A- /Viyv 



TB1M Kill. 



\ /.<> i« i; , v 



— 0 



55V 



It 




s: m Mii 



ttfl »/.'/./* A. i 



'orailgai 



not* 



/•v-n- nf I* It lWp.r if ■«!■,»« /.n. 



I 



HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 29 

or Hawk's Islands, from the numerous hawks and falcons 
found among them. — This being the substance of all that 
is published as to the origin of the discovery of the 
Islands, I shall take up my subject at this exact point, 
and proceed without interruption, in my promised his- 
tory. 

From Vander Berg's description, and from the best 
authenticated annals, it appears that the Azores were, 
on their first discovery, entirely destitute of inhabitants, 
and of every description of animals, except hawks, fal- 
cons, crows, and some few species of migratory birds. 
This circumstance was extremely favourable to the Por- 
tuguese settlers. To extend, secure, and establish, a 
new government, they had no occasion to employ either 
treachery or violence ; no necessity to wade through seas 
of blood, or scenes of massacre. They prized the land 
which they thus obtained without carnage, and valued 
fields which they found fertile, though unmanured by 
the slaughter of friends and foes. Influenced by such 
benign considerations, they lived together for a consider- 
able time, in the greatest simplicity of heart, and in the 
most inviolable harmony. Content to pursue an 
obcure, and primitive life, they cultivated the soil, and 
bartered its produce, with traders from Lisbon, for the 

f 2 



30 HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 

few necessaries which they required from the mother- 
country. To these strangers they were extremely hos- 
pitable ; nor were they less charitable to their own infirm 
and poor ; for whose relief, each family in the respective 
islands contributed a monthly share ; and, at every fes- 
tival, sent them, besides, a portion of provision, suited to 
the exigencies of their case. But this state of life was of 
short duration ; in a moment of dark mystery and bold 
imposition, Spain formed a plan for the seizure and sub- 
jugation of the islands ; and she decisively insisted on 
its speedy and final accomplishment. An armament was 
fitted out ; a descent was made : horror and dismay were 
soon seen throughout the once happy Azores. The 
king's governors, and the deputies of the deputies, were 
strangers and soldiers, needy and tyrannical ; their duty, 
conquest ; their reward, plunder ; their residence, an 
encampment ; their administration a campaign. As the 
superior arms or arts of the Spaniards changed the Por- 
tuguese into abject subjects ; their jurisdiction was 
enlarged, but they had no laws to dispense, no civilization 
to communicate. 

Among such men it was, that a different order of the 
Spanish people sought refuge from the violence and cru- 
elty of their own government. The time appears to 



HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 31 

have been towards the latter part of the reign of the fifth 
Ferdinand,* when those who governed Spain under him s 
with no less cruelty than impolicy, made the Spaniards 
of Moorish extraction desperate ; and then plundered, 
imprisoned, or butchered, them, for the natural effects 
of such despair. The best and worthiest men were often 
the objects of their most unrelenting fury ; whilst many 
of the moderate and wise fled to the Azores, and united 
themselves to all those islanders who were determined to 
stand up in defence of the laws, and of a better govern- 
ment. These, in their turn, became a race of people 
uncorrupted in their manners, and happy in their lives : 
they were not, indeed, acquainted with those ornamental 
accomplishments by which human nature is exalted ; 
they were only intimate with those useful arts, by which 
society is made happy. I shall resume this interesting 
epoch in my next : I abandon it at present, because the 
night advances, and I am weary. 



* Consort of Isabella, the illustrious patroness of Colon, or Columbus. 



LETTER VI. 



REMARKS ON THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS, CONTINUED. 

AN improved state of cultivation and civili- 
zation ; loyalty and affection towards the monarch ; a 
ready obedience to the laws ; opulence and munificence 
among the higher classes ; comfort and cheerfulness 
among those of subordinate rank ; splendid religious 
establishments, filled by an exemplary clergy ; seminaries 
of learning, celebrated even on the continent ; charitable 
institutions worthy of equal celebration ; money becom- 
ing general in circulation throughout the islands ; com- 
merce nourishing to an extent unknown to their former 
history ; capitals advantageously embarked in the 
structure of harbours, roads, and buildings ; these were 
the best and proudest proofs of the final conduct of the 
Spaniards, and of the wisdom of that system of policy 
by which they governed the Azores. Indeed, the more 
I investigate that system, the more I find reason to be 
satisfied with its principles ; the more I am convinced 
that the advancement of the islands was progressive in 
wealth, in comfort, in civilization, in virtue, and, con- 



HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 33 

sequently, in happiness. This enviable state of prospe- 
rity, however, was doomed to be exposed to a rude and 
perilous shock. To sketch this a^ra, I must be permitted 
to enter into a short digression. 

The accession of Ferdinand to the gold and silver mines 
of South America, was to Spain an epoch, not of her 
independence and wealth, but of the diffusion of luxury, 
impiety, and other principles, which have since sunk a 
■ country into degradation that was once envied and 
esteemed. Of the injustice and cruelty of the Spaniards 
towards the credulous Mexican and innocent Peruvian, 
the retribution was signal, and the result, universal. 
Ambition was foiled, tyranny subdued, and oppression 
in America conferred freedom on the isles of the Atlan- 
tic. While her right arm was employed in scourging 
the peaceable inhabitants of the continent, the reins and 
rod of Portugal were forced from her left ; and distress 
resigned what generosity would never have bestowed. 

The Azores were now separated, totally and for ever, 
from the house of Spain, and consigned to the original 
proprietor. Murmurs against this dispensation of Pro- 
vidence arose, but unjustly. Spain became faint and 
feeble ; the concession, though sudden, was natural : 
though early, not premature. 



34 HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 

The triumph of the Portuguese, on the re-establish- 
ment of their supremacy, was more drunken than bloody. 
They subverted the established institutions, dilapidated 
public works, and denounced, plundered, and oppressed, 
the whole of the Spanish community. This conduct 
was impolitic. The Spaniards, especially those of 
Moorish extraction, were a people of extraordinary en- 
dowments, great acquisitions, and transcendent arrogance. 
Bold and haughty in their speech, daring in their 
thoughts, and fixed in their resolves, the stature of their 
mind over-topped that of the bigoted Portuguese, and 
caused them to despise their dominion, and to revolt 
against their subjugation. In wrath, too, less violent 
than sudden ; in revenge, not frequent, but implacable ; 
in character, possessing something that would be obeyed, 
and would not bend : they were not fitted for subjects 
of the Portuguese ; they, therefore, removed to Tene- 
rife and the Cape Verde Islands, leaving the Azores in 
a depopulated and nearly original state. 

Left to the government of a haughty aristocracy, with 
a bigoted people, these islands naturally lapsed into a 
long and gloomy period of degeneracy and contempt. It 
can answer no good purpose to dwell on this period of 
history : a period which presents nothing better than a 
consumptive population and a corrupt government, 



HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 35 

whose superstition, meanness, and misery, have marked 
every succeeding generation. This is all that the history 
of the period has to tell ; the rest is the squabble of 
parties, unimportant even in its day, contemptible in 
ours ; youth became age, and age sunk into the grave 
in silence and ignorance : for the £ood of the Azores 
nothing has been achieved ; for their improvement 
nothing attempted : a whole century was lost in a blank, 

On this gloom, one luminary arose ; and the Azores 
worshipped it with Persian idolatry. Pombal was that 
luminary. Pombal was the first Portuguese minister 
whose wisdom extended to these Islands, and whose 
plans for their advantage was remedial for the present, 
and warning for the future. He first taught the 
Azoreans that they might become a people, and Portu- 
gal that she might cease to be a despot. During his 
mission, the islands were improved by his authority, 
adorned by his munificence, and extolled by his praise. 
A sullen and bigoted ministry succeeded the adminis- 
tration of Pombal. The Queen of Portugal was the 
cause of this. She became a fanatic in religion, and 
appointed the most furious of her churchmen to direct 
the helm of the state. A cabinet so formed soon de- 
stroyed the foundations of whatever prosperity had been 
erected in the islands, and impeded and entangled the 

G 



36 HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 

course of those efforts which had operated towards their 
emancipation and advancement. Nor was this a solitary 
evil. Numerous nests of ecclesiastical hornets were 
settled throughout the islands : shoals of locusts and 
swarms of drones, who, to this day, overspread the land, 
crawl about the streets of the cities, towns, and villages, 
and glut themselves in feasting upon the labour of the 
industrious part of the community. These men, who 
tread upon the necks of the people, and who rob the 
public in every form, to support themselves in an over- 
grown state of tyranny, prodigality, and luxury, have 
established that system of policy, which I have repro- 
bated in a former letter, as the cause of the degeneracy 
of these islands, and of the ignorance of mankind, as to 
their capacity and value. It is a system of unbridled 
superstition and ferocious bigotry ; a system of inces- 
sant hypocrisy and religious outrage ; of moral depra- 
vity and of brutal ignorance ; of wanton tyranny and 
worse than savage barbarity ; of impiety, too, and of 
atheism ; a system which brings, as subordinate evils in 
its train, the annihilation of principle, the destruction of 
commerce, the extinction of Arts and Sciences, and all 
the horrors of indigence, famine, and disease. 

The possibility of the prevalence of such a system 
would not be credited, were it not known that, all the 



HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 37 

islands are under the religious dominion of a sordid and 
luxurious priesthood, and subject to the civil controul 
of a licentious military power. A government which 
condemns the country to a perpetual state of ignorance 
and sloth, and which confines the whole of its intercourse 
with the civilized world to the Banks of the Tagus, or 
the Port of Lisbon. For the last hundred and fifty 
years, these peaceable islanders have had to withdraw 
their eyes from the rest of the world, from every general 
public care, from every generous manly thought, and 
to fix them steadily and perpetually on the court of 
Portugal. A court whose plodding head looked down 
and mocked its heart ; which reasoned itself out of honour, 
out of patriotism, out of every great propensity of the 
soul. What was it to such a court, if rape and murder 
were committed by its priests and military in the Azores ? 
What, if desolating fires and volcanic eruptions destroyed 
the villages and the peasantry ? What, if its governors 
and ecclesiastics set their obscene domination on the neck 
of this innocent race ? What, of all this ? Nothing. 
Believe me, such a government can tremble for no ge- 
nerous people ; no unhappy colonists. It throws not 
its eyes upon a distant people, their fields, or their 
happiness, but confines itself to the spot where itself 
was born, or the palace where it resides. Upon all this 
globe of earth, therefore, the Azoreans have been per- 

g 2 



38 HISTORY OF THE AZORES. 

mitted to discern no spot, but the city and court of 
Lisbon : hence their ignorance and degeneracy : hence 
the public ignorance on the subject of their condition 
and capacity. I hasten now to conclude ; perceiving a 
tendency to fall into declamation, which cannot be agree- 
able to you. 



LETTER VII. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF ST. MIGUEL, 

OR ST. MICHAEL, 

AS I purpose describing the islands in detail, 
accordingly as I visited them, I shall now suppress all 
general argument, and give my correspondence the nature 
and character of a narrative. This mode will be pro- 
ductive of facility to me, and of a clear and permanent 
light to you and to the public, whose pleasure and in- 
formation is the sole object of my desire, and pride of 
my employment. 

Three years have nearly elapsed since I first visited 
the Azores. The circumstance was accidental. I was 
on my passage home from South America, after a depar- 
ture of forty days, when land was discovered, almost in 
every direction, from our quarter-deck. The ship's 
reckoning justly told them to be the Western Islands. 
They appeared in sight thus :-— St Michael's right-a- 
head ; Terceira on the larboard, and St. Mary on the 
starboard, bow ; with Pico and Fayal on the larboard 



40 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

quarter. I no sooner beheld this gratifying sight — gra- 
tifying to me, who was exhausted by a long voyage, and 
with a constitution shaken by a residence of several 
months immediately under the line, than I resolved to 
put into St. Michael's, and, after visiting the islands, and 
recovering my health, return to England by some other 
opportunity. Having communicated this intention to 
the captain of the vessel I was in, he shaped his course 
for the end of St. Michael's, and, after a run of seven 
hours along the southern coast, cast anchor in the open 
road-stead of the City of Ponta Delgada. 

I cannot say that the observations I had to make., on 
first viewing the northern extremity of the island, were 
by any means favourable ; no ; nothing appeared but 
mountains of a stupendous height and bulk, and of a 
nature and disposition that bid defiance to all the arts 
that have been introduced by human industry, for the 
improvement of agriculture and the comfort of society. 
The beach appeared like many ramified pillars of 
basaltes, and the trees, with which it was crowned, were 
produced by a soil so shallow and indigent, that their 
growth was stinted, and their roots compelled to extend 
themselves horizontally along the surface of the ground. 
The impression, however, made by this scene of rough 
and craggy cliffs, either piled on each other, or separate, 



GENERAL DECSRIPTION OP ST. MICHAEL'S. 41 

was soon dissipated by the pleasing contrast of the 
southern coast ; which presented, for several miles, the 
prospect of an inclined plane composed of a soil which 
appeared peculiarly favourable to luxuriant vegetation. 
Open pasture, bounded by woods and vineyards, and 
corn fields, interspersed with orange gardens, every where 
met the eye, and in points of view that shewed the soil 
to be fertile and productive. The more I approached 
this delightful region, the more I discovered that Nature 
and Art went hand in hand, and that a certain degree of 
wildness was suffered to pervade the whole, which, as it 
resembled Nature in its beauty, resembled it also in its 
use and benefit to society. Nature might be said to 
have made this a favourite spot, to which she was more 
than ordinarily kind and liberal of her bounties ; and 
which bespoke improvement by leaving, if the paradox 
may pass, so little room for improvement. 

To enable you, however, to form a just estimate of 
this description, it is proper to remark that, the impres- 
sion which produced it was made on a remarkably fine 
day : one of those days in which Nature unfolds all her 
brightest charms, and opens, as it were, her whole trea- 
sury of blessings. The inimitable beauty, extent, and 
variety, of the prospects, the verdure of the fields and 
meadows, the agreeable fragrancy of the air, the lustre. 



42 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

mildness, and benignity, of the Heavens ; in a word, the 
whole scene contributed to inspire the idea, that all 
were made for our peculiar gratification ; feeling our 
spirits cheered and enlivened ; our imaginations warmed 
and entertained ; our rational faculties exercised and 
invigorated. In this agreeable consciousness, every 
anxious and peevish thought appeared to vanish, and 
the soul seemed open to every grateful and affectionate 
sentiment towards the great author of its happiness ! 

Pardon these digressive expressions, and accept my 
apology. I now only add that, on landing at the City 
of Ponta Delgada, I was escorted to the residence of a 
gentleman, Mr. Read, the British consul, where I was 
invited to take up my abode, and allowed leisure to 
recover from the fatigue of a long voyage, and the debi- 
lity of a southern climate. 



t 



I 




Pcasmasts- Jtov. 



LETTER VIII. 



st. Michael's. — its general conformation, &c. 

I should have imagined, had I not known 
you to be very different from the generality of men, that 
you would not be pleased with so dull a subject as that 
on which I write. But I know you so well as to be 
convinced that you wish me to continue my specula- 
tions, and in such a way as I am best qualified to 
pursue. 

Pourtrayed to you as I have been, you may conjec- 
ture that, the pleasures of the town, or the hospitality 
of Mr. Read, did not efface the impressions already de- 
lineated, or divert me from the desire I expressed of 
becoming acquainted with the general character of the 
island. Such conjecture would not be ill founded. I 
was ever and anon relapsing insensibly into the subject, 
and could scarcely converse on any thing so entirely 
foreign to it, but which served in some way or other to renew 
the determination. Thus impelled, I hastened to make a 
tour of the island. The detail of that tour I shall com- 

H 



44 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

municate in some subsequent letter : the general impres- 
sion shall receive its colouring in this. 

It abundantly appears, that, the island of St. Michael 
was originally a beautiful plain, covered with aromatic 
plants ; a kind of wilderness of sweets formed of rich 
verdure and beautiful trees. It, at this day, however, 
consists of a number of mountains, hills, and declivities, 
none of which are primitive, but evidently the gradual 
production of volcanic eruptions. Hence the bold as- 
sertion, that the island existed as a plain before it was 
covered by mountains and hills. That the whole was 
formed at the same time by sub-marine fires, is an hy- 
pothesis which cannot be maintained, because the 
existing levels are composed of primitive substances, 
totally void of calcareous matter, or of apparent effer- 
vescence from marine and mineral contents, and because 
the mountains and hills evidently indicate, by their 
conical figure and the cavity at their top, their being the 
distinct production of fire. They bear unequivocal 
marks of the effects of this destructive agent, in an accu- 
mulation of lava, scoriae, and volcanic sand. Whether 
the origin of these mountains is to be traced to one 
immense mass of fire, or whether they are to be ascribed 
to the effort of ignited matter, in various places of local 
conflagration, is a subject beyond my discussion. It is 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 45 

certain that there have been numerous eruptions, that 
every great eruption produced a new mountain, and that 
the island may be regarded, not as the production of a 
single volcano, but of an assemblage of volcanoes, many 
of which are extinguished, or burn internally and invi- 
sibly, and many that act visibly in the ejaculation of 
small portions of mineral lava and boiling water. There 
are circumstances, also, that afford strong reasons for 
believing, that there were there principal craters, whose 
vortex now form the three great lakes situated in the 
center and in the north and southern extremities of the 
island. From these craters vast mountains have been 
thrown up ; and, in proportion as these ceased to vomit 
forth matter, partial eruptions burst out, and formed 
the lateral hills and declivities, which extend themselves 
in every direction from the mountains that surround 
the lakes. Why the principal and inferior craters 
ceased to vomit lava and flame is also evident. After a 
long lapse of ages, the waters of the springs and rivers, 
and, in some instances, the waters of the ocean gained 
access to each crater, and suddenly extinguished the 
effervescence of their mineral contents. In consequence 
of this event, the fires ceased to burn, or had to retire 
beyond the action of the water, or to stations where its 
office is now confined to boiling the water, with various 
degrees of activity and force. 

h 2 



46 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL/s. 

Besides these remains of burning mountains and vol- 
canoes, the whole island presents the most decisive evi- 
dence of its having been the theatre of repeated earth- 
quakes and convulsive shocks. In most countries, 
earthquakes are produced by sulphur and nitre, or by 
sulphur sublimed from pyrites, and ignited, in subter- 
raneous caverns, by a fermentation of vapours, which 
gives an appulse to the neighbouring combustible 
matter, and causes it to be discharged with a noise like 
thunder, and sometimes with an eruption of water and 
wind. But here the earthquakes have been occasioned 
by a contrary cause ; by the bursting in of the waters 
upon the mineral fires ; an agency which must have 
instantly produced sudden blasts, violent explosions, 
rumbling in the bowels of the earth, and that lifting up 
of the ground above it, which occasions havoc and 
devastation, till it gets vent or discharge. That this 
is the case in this island, appears incontrovertible, for 
many of the existing extinguished volcanoes, which 
served as so many spiracles for the discharge of subter- 
ranean fire, are rent and torn asunder, by the violent 
effervescence caused by the sudden conjunction of 
elements of such contrastic natures, or opposing pro- 
perties. Nor is the effect produced by this unnatural 
confluence confined to cissures in the craters, and rents 
in the cliffs ; some mountains have been precipitated 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 4/ 

into the adjacent valleys, others upset from their base, 
and some swallowed up in the bosom of that earth 
whence they originally rose in lava, scoriae, and sand. 
These phenomena do not depend upon conjecture ; they 
are supported -by testimony which instantaneously strikes 
conviction and commands belief. The base of the 
precipitated mountains exhibits palpable remains of 
decomposed substances, original!}' produced on the 
surface of the globe ; the strata of the mountains merely 
upset is displayed in perpendicular, not in horizontal, 
stratum, and those mountains which have been swallowed 
up, have left behind them frightful chasms, tremendous 
precipices, or form the beds of immense and beautiful 
lakes. The more perfect mountains are of a conical or 
hemispherical figure, as formed by continued eruptions, 
and their exterior is distinguished by characters which 
denote both the distance and the nature of the conflagra- 
tion. The lava, on some, appearing in craggy eminences ; 
and, on others, in a state of decomposition, forming a 
soil highly fertile and productive. The intervals, also, 
in many instances, derive their complexion and features 
from the direction and propulsion of the lava. Where 
that destructive agent ran without interruption, it served 
to fill up inequalities, and to form a lovely champaign 
country ; but where its course was impeded and per- 
turbed, it has left several little islands, or hillocks, which 



48 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

exhibit a singular appearance, with all the bloom of 
luxuriant vegetation, encompassed and rendered almost 
inaccessible by mountains of volcanic ashes, and rugged 
heaps of ferruginous and pumice stone. In short, St. 
Michael's possesses the most heavenly spots upon earth ; 
and, if it resembles hell within, those spots make it 
resemble paradise without. Here, the ground is fertile, 
and its productions luxuriant ; there, are all the elements 
of destruction. 

Fortunately, however, for the inhabitants, this island 
is now of such a structure and conformation, that the 
water may pass freely and without impediment through- 
out the volcanic caverns therein, and easily get out, 
without shaking or disturbing the earth, in the manner 
which it did when subterraneous communication was 
wanting, and when the water, on coming in contact 
with the fire, was propelled through the spiracles of the 
crater, thereby forcing and removing all obstacles, 
heaving up and shocking the earth, and rushing forth 
with a loud bellowing, and devastating velocity. One 
hundred years have elapsed since the people have been 
terrified by volcanic explosions of this dreadful nature. 
Since that period, or since the domination of the waters 
over the mineral and metallic fires, this island has been 
exposed to no considerable shock, and what is now 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 49 

heard, and that perpetually in several places, resembles 
the flowing and ebullition of waters, and a dull noise 
like that of a heavy carriage rolling along with a rapid 
and unremitting motion. 

As a farther testimony of the serenity of this island 
from volcanic eruptions, I shall state, that in conse- 
quence of the introduction of the waters into its sub- 
terraneous caverns, and of the washing away of the 
sulphur and nitre from their arches, the fire has not only 
ceased to appear in eruptions on the island, but is 
content to operate invisibly on the waters, which prevent 
it from rising, and also to seek for vent and aliment 
throughout the caverns which lie concealed and profound 
under the surrounding ocean. This opinion is justified 
by a recent event. A most awful and tremendous ex- 
plosion of smoke and flames having issued from the sea, 
at the distance of half a league from the shore, at the 
western end of the island. From the bowels of the 
inflammatory substance, forming its passage upwards of 
eighty fathoms deep in the ocean, issued smoke, fire, 
cinders, ashes, and stones, of an immense size. Innume- 
rable quantities of fish, some nearly roasted, and others 
as if broiled, floated on the surface of the sea towards 
the shore. But this kind of philosophical disquisition 
leads me from my point ; I shall in future only touch 



50 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

this theme as occasion demands : satisfied to remark, 
that, without this general view of the physical state 
of the island, my particular account would, in many in- 
stances, appear imperfect, and my sentiments on many 
points absurd. 



LETTER IX. 



DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S, CONTINUED. — — ITS 
TOWNS, &C. — 'MEANS OF ITS MELIORATION. 

FROM the consideration of the exterior 
surface and constituent parts of this island, I shall pro- 
ceed to state its dimension ai.d capacities. 

Saint Michael's is nearly one hundred English miles 
in circumference ; contains one city, five principal towns, 
fifty-four parishes, and about ninety thousand inhabit- 
ants. The coast is very bold, and may be approached 
without fear, in almost every part. Its military strength 
consists of two hundred troops in the most deplorable 
and insubordinate state, with six thousand peasantry, 
whose arms are the pikes with which they drive their 
cattle. The principal fortification is the castle of St. 
Braz, which is close to the sea, at the western end of the 
city of Ponta del Gada. It is mounted with twenty-four 
pieces of cannon, but few of which are capable of service, 
A league to the eastward are two small three-gun forts, 
inefficient and useless from decay and neglect. Th& 

i 



52 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

island, notwithstanding, has many strong local holds ; 
and several of the hills and passes, if judiciously forti- 
fied, would be absolutely impregnable. 

The inhabitants are compelled by law to confine their 
trade to Lisbon ; however, since the expatriation of the 
court, they have assumed a wider range, and maintain 
a considerable commerce not only with Lisbon, but with 
England, Russia, and America, &c. From England 
they are entirely supplied with woollens, hardware, 
earthen-ware, and various other necessaries ; sending, in 
exchange, about seventy vessels annually with fruit, 
which is produced here in vast abundance. To Portugal 
are sent, corn, pulse, poultry, cattle, and vegetables* 
which are paid for in returns of tobacco, sugar, coffee, 
trinkets, dispensations, indulgences, images, and relicks 
of rags, chips, nails, blood, and bones, belonging to the 
imaginary saints, &c, which imposition and superstition 
teach them to idolize. From America they receive 
boards, staves, lumber, rice, fish, pitch, tar, iron in pots 
and bars, and a variety of Indian goods, which are paid 
for, in exchange, by wines. The intercourse with Russia 
is similar to that with America, but on a more contracted 
scale. There exists, also, a ready money trade with 
vessels, which make the island for refreshment, the crews 
of which are furnished with cattle and provisions, equal 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 53 

to the English, and superior to any in the world beside ; 
and also with wine, pleasant, and peculiarly adapted 
to correct the defects of a seaman's health. 

Pont a del Gad a, the city whence I write, is the 
principal theatre of this commerce. It appears exceed- 
ingly pleasant from the offing, and derives an air of 
dignity from the convents, which are numerous, and 
many of them considerable and handsome. There is a 
mole for the protection of small vessels, but those of a 
larger size are compelled to ride at anchor in an open 
road-stead. By deepening and enlarging the mole, 
however, it could be made capable of receiving vessels 
of a considerable draught of water ; and, by excavating 
the square of St. Francis, and cutting a canal between it 
and the mole, a large number of vessels could be accom- 
modated ; and this, at a small expense, would produce the 
greatest and most beneficial effect to the island and its 
commercial relations. Till this improvement be ef- 
fected, I cannot honestly recommend vessels of a great 
draught to visit this place, for they would be frequently 
subject to slip their cable whilst loading or unloading, 
and perhaps not recover their station for several weeks, 
or, at least, not dare to attempt its recovery during the 
prevalence of strong southerly gales. 

i 2 . , 



54 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

Inconveniently as this city is situated for commercial 
purposes, it is still the best which the island affords. 
That which ranks next to it, is called Ribeira Grande. 
The latter is seated on the north side ; but, having no 
anchorage, and the harbour being filled with dangerous 
shoals, it is dependent on the south side for its commer- 
cial supplies. The town of Villa Franca, on the 
south side, has a very inferior anchorage, and that for 
small vessels only. And, as there is no other port or 
safe anchorage appertaining to the island, it is evident, 
that the city must increase in commercial consequence, 
and that it is of the highest necessity to enlarge the mole 
and form both docks and harbours, in the manner before 
alluded to. 

The disadvantages arising from the want of naval 
convenience, are greatly aggravated by the religion of 
the country and the nature of the government. There 
cannot, however, be a better proof of the natural dispo- 
sition of the island than seeing it comparatively flourish, 
or increase in strength, even under its physical, religious, 
and political, difficulties ; than seeing it export annually 
15,000 tons of fruit, wine, and provisions ; and, after main- 
taining ninety thousand inhabitants, contribute 100,000 
milreas,ormore than .£.28,000, sterling, to its parent state. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL^. 55 

It is here proper to observe, that, in consequence of 
the obstructions I have named, not only in this but 
in preceding letters, arts, agriculture, and commerce, are 
not carried to more than one twentieth degree of the 
extent to which they are capable of extending ; nor is 
the population by any means proportioned to the extent 
of the territory, or to the improvements which it is sus- 
ceptible of attaining. When I consider, therefore, these 
circumstances, and when I find the soil so prolific, and 
the climate so genial, that both European and tropical 
plants come to the greatest perfection, I must acknow- 
ledge a peculiar munificence in Nature towards this 
region ; and, at the same time, in man a most culpable 
indifference to the promotion of those objects which at 
once ornament a country, and contribute to the comforts 
and felicity of social life. 

The calculation which naturally follows this view of 
the present state of the island, is, what would be its 
future profit and improvement were it submitted to the 
conduct of a government, guided by an enlightened 
policy ; professing a religion, kind and benevolent in 
principle, and ruling a people of activity, probity, and 
honour ? The advantages, &c, would be abundant as 
ineffable ; harbours would be formed, commerce in- 



56 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

crease, arts revive, morals improve, religion purify, 
and every point of the island would be cultivated, and 
bear the charm of plenty. These anticipated advan- 
tages will appear more clearly from my future commu- 
nications. 



LETTER X. 



DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. 

I AM sure that you will require no apology 
for my diverting your attention awhile from subjects of 
a public nature, to participate, ideally, in those calmer 
pleasures in which I have been engaged since my resi- 
dence in this island. To commence this intention, I 
take leave to introduce you to the acquaintance of Mr. 
Read, the British consul of the Azores, to a residence 
in whose hospitable house I am indebted for much of 
the information which may appear in my communica- 
tions. 

To very considerable knowledge, as a public cha- 
racter, and to the purest patriotism, as a British subject, 
Mr. Read unites great and diversified merit as a man. 
He is not one of the number of those commercial people 
who know no entertainment beyond what their profits 
afford ; but of those who, stepping aside sometimes • 
from the noise and hurry of a more exposed life, can, 
with a much truer relish of happiness, enjoy himself or 



58 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

his friend in rural solitude. Indeed, it is his peculiar 
felicity to have united in himself two characters rarely 
found together, the philosopher, and the man of business. 
This habitude is so natural to him, that, whether I have 
attended him in the mixed duties of diplomatist and 
merchant, or in select parties of men of letters and 
science, I have never been able to determine, whether 
he has better accommodated himself to the difficulties 
of the one, or the erudition of the other ; for he has 
been universally caressed and applied to as the life and 
spirit of both. Perhaps no person has more of this 
happy popularity of disposition ; and, I declare to you ? 
I could wish, for the world's sake at least, that his worth 
should be known beyond the narrow circle of these neg- 
lected isles. It seems a kind of public injury, even in 
him, to conceal the many valuable qualifications he is 
master of, in shade and obscurity, which ought rather to 
be made conspicuous for common benefit. But he is 
inflexibly resolved to pursue his present course of living 
in his favorite Azores.. 

One afternoon, as Mr. Read and I were taking the air 
on horseback, " What think you," said he, " of our 
" making a visit to my country house ? you will find 
" Mrs. Read there : I shall be glad to make you ac- 
" quainted with a woman who is the source of all my 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 5.9 

ee happiness. Besides, you will be much pleased with 
ff a sight of her villa ; I call it her's because she has 
" been at considerable pains to improve it, and in that 
" improvement I think she has displayed much taste. 
ce But you are a connoisseur in this way," continued he, 
" come, and have an opportunity of passing your own 
" judgment upon her talents." 

I could have no objection to so agreeable a proposal. 
I had not before been introduced to Mrs. Read, who 
seldom came to her town residence, the place where 
Mr. Read and I were resident, unless when engaged or 
occupied in making a tour of the island. About an 
hour's ride, through a country diversified with vineyards, 
orange gardens, corn fields, and pasture lands, brought 
us thither. I was received with an easy civility, the 
genuine result of true politeness. I would have excused 
the liberty of being introduced so late in the evening, 
but Mrs. Read would hear nothing of the sort, and gave 
me a most cordial welcome. 

On the following morning, our first ceremonies being 
over, I took occasion to say something on the agreeable- 
ness of the place and situation, which was such as to 
strike one at first sight. It was an instance of good 
taste, which seemed to discover itself in every point, 

K 



60 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

that Mr. Read had made choice of so beautiful a spot 
to build on ; where, without being too much exposed, 
he had the command of a delightful sea and land pro- 
spect. But in this consisted all the original advantages 
of the place. In other respects it was the most barren 
and desolate spot on the island ; a mere surface of lava 
on which the perfection of Art was to cross Nature, and 
requiring more expense to make so bad a site tolerable, 
than would answer to make a more advantageous one 
delightful. Certain it is, that the hospitable proprietors 
have all the merit of their design to themselves, being 
little beholden to the assistance of Nature. To cultivate 
a bleak barren scene, and give beauties where Nature 
seems to have been more than ordinarily sparing of 
them, was esteemed, by Mrs. and Mr. Read, a sort of 
voluntary creation, in which the force of the artist's own 
genius is at full liberty to display itself, and where an 
enlightened skill may correct the penury of the soil, 
and produce fruits, flowers, and vegetables, suitable to 
the varieties of the seasons. However, artificial as the 
grounds and gardens are, they possess that pleasant sim- 
plicity which Nature, or a true lover of Nature, only 
can give. The interchanges of shade and opening, level 
and raised ground, garden and pasture, vineyards, and 
orange trees, are adjusted with great art, so as to relieve 
and set off each other, and to embrace or exclude the 



General description of st. Michael's. >i 

view of the country or ocean, as either was judged most 
agreeable in the general plan. And, whilst the eye is 
occupied with the various forms of interesting objects 
that present themselves, such as the city and its spires, 
the harbour and its boats, the road-stead and its ship- 
ping, the cultivated country with its fields and villages, 
and the back ground with its multiplicity of volcanic 
eruptions ; the other senses were as delightfully enter- 
tained with the abundant fragrancies of natural odours, 
the warbling music of birds, and the soothing softness 
of aquatic numbers. In short, I never witnessed a more 
interesting scene. I was so much engaged by its beauties, 
that I passed the entire forenoon in rambling from place 
to place, till the dinner hour insensibly came upon me. 
In the house, also, which is newly built, a general neat- 
ness, usefulness, and elegant simplicity, takes place of 
operose grandeur and studied magnificence. I passed 
in it many days of extreme satisfaction, and left it with 
a strong conviction that, the generous owners are persons 
of liberal minds, strong sense, and highly cultivated 
understandings. 

Being a lover of natural improvements, I received su- 
perior lights and advantages from this visit than I have 
as yet described. 1 learned from Mr. Read, than whom 
no man is better acquainted with the Azores, that nearly 

k 2 



62 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

all the improved land around the Ponta Del Gada, and 
indeed throughout the island, with the exception of such 
parts of the primitive plain as were not influenced by 
eruptions and earthquakes, was originally like his grounds 
before he commenced their improvements ; that is, they 
presented a rugged superficies of lava, and consisted in- 
ternally of alternate layers of lava and vegetable earth, 
successively deposited upon one another, and reaching 
to a considerable, and often to an unknown, depth. The 
lava on the surface resembling slate-coloured rock ; in 
some places as hard as marble ; in others, of the con- 
sistence of indurated sand. A difference in the quality 
of the lava in these respects, arises from difference of 
situation, elevation, or depression, and exposure to wind, 
rain, &c. ; but that all the principal improvements were 
made upon this obdurate substance is as certain as asto- 
nishing ; and, as I have made myself master of the 
means by which so gigantic an undertaking is effected, 
I shall minutely state the process in my next letter. 
Repeating here, that it is to my visit to Mr. Read's 
villa, I am indebted for a detail which may be relied 
upon for its accuracy and authenticity. 



LETTER XI. 



st. Michael's continued, — mode of cultivation, &c. 

IN my promised description of the mode of 
cultivating a St. Michael's farm, I shall avail myself of 
the method which Mr. Read has pursued ; selecting 
from the practice of others those particulars that are 
most deserving of notice, and combining them together 
so as to form a connected narrative. 

The farm purchased by Mr. Read, about three years 
since, for one dollar per acre, consisted, at that time, 
of two distinct regions ; the fertile and the barren : the 
fertile, ascribed to the decomposition of lava, and the 
barren, to the lava's being in a vitreous and indurated 
state. Determined to take advantage of the most ex- 
tensive and commanding prospect, Mr. Read was com- 
pelled to commence his operations upon the barren 
region of his estate ; on a part entirely composed of 
substances that had been discharged from the adjacent 
volcanoes in their various eruptions ; and which, for the 
most part, formed a lava entirely naked, rugged, and 



64 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

desolate, to the most extreme degree. From some cal- 
careous matter, blended with this mass of hard rock, 
Mr. Read provided himself with limestone, and, with the 
fragments of lava collected from the surface, blasted 
from rocks, and excavated from quarries, he built up 
his house and fenced in his grounds. 

From the time that these labors began to effect a 
change in the character of the territory, an applicable 
system of agriculture was immediately introduced. The 
lava is planted with oranges, and set with vines, and the 
land formed from the decomposition of volcanic sub- 
stances is sown with Indian corn, small beans, and wheat. 
As the ground last mentioned yields to the plough, 
harrow, and all the other instruments of husbandry, I 
have no occasion to describe the means employed for 
rendering it prolific ; but, as the lava defies all the or- 
dinary efforts of human industry, I shall be particular 
in detailing the mode pursued, which gives it an imme- 
diate fertility and sudden investigation. 

The lava being somewhat cleared by the consumption 
of stone for the walls, inclosures, and buildings, and the 
intervening cavities filled up with the redundance of 
craggy eminences, and vitreous and friable rubbish, 
common to all lava, the surface is marked out into 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL^. 65 

quinc-qunx characters for the more free admission of air 
to the plants intended to be cultivated. These are 
oranges and vines, the staple fruits of the island : all 
others, though growing abundantly, are confined to 
gardens, as intended only for the use of individual fami- 
lies. The surface of the lava being first regularly traced, 
holes are wrought in the place of each mark, and the 
plants inserted in progression as the holes are made. 
The labor attending this operation is various. Where 
the lava is shallow and seated on a stratum of vegetable 
earth, the holes are made with the crow and pick-axe, 
and the plant is at once placed in a bed where it can 
rapidly shoot up and extend its fibres. But, where the 
lava is deep and difficult to be penetrated, the holes are 
made by blasting the lava with powder ; and the plant 
is set in decomposed lava, or decayed vegetable sub- 
stances, brought from adjacent places for that particular 
purpose, and from which it also rapidly shoots up, its 
roots finding their way into the insinuosities caused by 
the blasting or other circumstances common to the 
place. The effect of both operations appears like the 
effect of magic, and the revolution of one summer pro- 
duces a change not to be conceived by those who have 
not witnessed both the practice and the effect. The 
truth is, the barren lava thus cultivated, is much better 
adapted to the orange and vine than deep and luxuriant 



66 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

soils ; for, in such soils, the orange plant would run 
into head and be subject to destruction by storms, and 
the vine would run into wood and require espaliers for 
its support : whereas, in the lava, by the depth of the 
hole and the consequent parapet around it, which, is 
never entirely filled up, the young orange plant is shel- 
tered from the tempest till it has capacity to resist its 
force ; and the vine, from the same causes, finds support 
for its tendrils, and a check to its growth. There are 
other advantages which result to the plant from this 
practice, whice it is also proper to name. The roots, 
by running horizontally under the lava, are screened 
from the violence of the sun ; and, by vegetating in a 
situation calculated to receive and to retain a necessary 
proportion of moisture, they are supplied with all the 
means of giving a vigour to the stock which is never 
attained in bibulous soils exposed to the action of an 
intemperate sun. Besides, when the lava is once thus 
planted, little else remains to be performed for years. 
The labor of one man is sufficient for the improvement 
of twenty acres, as nothing more is required than dress- 
ing the plants, and renewing the waste of vegetable earth 
in situations where the roots cannot shoot into a natural 
stratum of that substance. But, where plantations and 
vineyards are seated in a rich luxuriant plain, the ground 
requires the most unremitting industry ; it must be 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP ST. MICHAELV 67 

dressed, weeded, and repeatedly watered ; the vines, too, 
must be trained upon props, and the orange trees, from 
the excessive weight of their tops, and the height to 
which they rise in deep soils, require the shelter of 
immense walls to preserve the roots from being torn up, 
and the fruit from falling. It would seem from these 
facts and arguments, that a lava farm may be made a 
more productive property than a farm containing rich 
pasture and arable lands. I have tried this paradox by 
a minute calculation, and I am fully convinced that 
where the cultivator has money to clear, inclose, per- 
forate, and plant, his lava, the lava constitutes a superior 
property to any other ; but, where means are wanting 
to subdue those obstacles, the plain country is to be 
preferred, inasmuch only as it is cultivated at less ex- 
pense. The calculation is obvious. In the first instance, 
the rich level country is adapted properly for wheat, 
Indian corn, and beans, or callivances. The price of the 
beans and wheat is five shillings per bushel, the price 
of the corn two and sixpence. An acre of the two 
former will produce forty, and of the latter eighty, 
bushels. This amounts to ten pounds per acre; a 
miserable remuneration for capital and labor. Whereas 
one acre of orange trees is worth at least one hundred 
guineas, and of vine forty. Vines are more easily 
reduced to calculation than oranges. They are not 

L 



68 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

subject to much variety in growth, or fluctuation in 
quantity. But orange trees are known to gain, in par- 
ticular instances, such an extraordinary degree of per- 
fection, as to make an estimate of the value of an acre 
pass beyond all bounds of belief. You may judge from 
this circumstance : there are several trees in the island 
which produce from 40,000 to 60,000 oranges each : say 
50,000, and allowing 1000, the usual quantity to a box, 
and the usual price two dollars and a half per box, the 
single tree produces the extraordinary sum of thirty-two 
pounds five shillings. It takes, however, seven years 
to bring orange plantations to perfection, and three 
years to render a vineyard productive : therefore, none 
but a capitalist should embark in such undertakings, as 
it would be ruinous to a poor man to embark in a spe- 
culation so little calculated to meet the exigencies of 
the day. The lava, notwithstanding, is cultivated, in 
some few places, by the lowest order of farmers ; but 
their practice is so indigent and unprofitable, that it 
hardly merits the name of cultivation. They merely 
plant the vine or the orange in such accidental apertures 
and interstices as they chance to find in the lava ; taking 
no pains to clear the surface, or to equalize the number 
of plants to the given space of inclosed soil. Than this 
practice nothing can be more slovenly : than that of 
Mr. Read's, and other capitalists of taste and informa- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELV 69 

tion, nothing can be more agreeable to a picturesque 
eye. The quinc-qunx manner of planting, exhibiting 
straight lines and right angles from every point of view, 
makes the whole plantation look like a garden, shrub- 
bery, and orchard, and gives it a . power over the 
imagination, which is, perhaps, increased by the ever 
present conviction, that the delightful scene was once 
a stream of liquid fire. 

Of the expense attending the cultivation of a farm 
composed of volcanic eruptions, an estimate is not to 
be made without consulting a variety of considerations. 
Mr. Read's farm is so disposed, as to become the bed of 
the matter which was discharged from the mouth of the 
great volcano, now seen about two miles distant from 
the back of his house, and has been attended by con- 
siderable cost, the lava proving excessively hard, and, for 
the most part, three feet thick. From this instance no 
general conclusion can be drawn. And, when the farms 
consist of volcanic sand and ashes, metallic slag and 
pumice stone, nothing can be deduced but what arises 
from the comparative facility of labor, and the disposi- 
tion in one place to vegetate sooner than another. The 
following maxima, without being minutely correct, may 
tend to assist conjecture. — Thick lava, without an inter- 
vening stratum of earth, thirty guineas ; thin lava, 

l 2 



70 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

covering an immediate stratum of earth, twenty guineas ; 
lava invested with a stratum of earth proper for vege- 
tation, fifteen guineas ; and lava, in an entire state of 
decomposition, or slightly covered with pumice, ashes, 
and sand, ten guineas per acre. But, in the purchase of 
a lava farm, it is necessary to have some instruction or 
judgment on the subject of lava. For lavas are very 
different in their consistency and other qualities, and 
these differences must render the argument on the cost 
of labor very inconclusive. It is generally understood, 
that the lava in the S. E. region of the island is softer, 
and becomes fertile sooner than that of the N. E., which 
retains such a degree of hardness as to continue nearly 
altogether sterile, and incapable of yielding to human 
industry and labor. To assist the judgment, I venture 
to state how I distinguish good from bad lava. The 
fertile, or good, is a kind of honeycomb stone, of a grey 
colour, rough to the touch, and of a moderately fine 
grain. The sterile, or the bad, is a species of marble, of 
a dark mixed colour, smooth to the touch, gives sparks 
with steel, sounds like metal when it is struck, and 
possesses a grain susceptible of the highest polish. 

But, however uncertain and fallacious all genera! 
calculations may be on this subject, it is, nevertheless, 
perfectly true, that three years have scarcely elapsed. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 71 

since Mr. Read's farm presented nothing to the view but 
a waste of lava, in some parts plain, in others rugged, 
and broken into chasms and cliffs ; and that it is at this 
day covered with the orange and the vine, chequered, for 
domestic use and local ornament, with the fruits of the 
northern, and the flowering shrubs of the tropical cli- 
mates. How much must he enjoy this creation of his 
own hands ! May he long enjoy it ! 



LETTER XII. 



st. Michael's continued.- — cultivation of wheat, 
beans, and other grain— advantages arising 
from its import into great britain. 

I HASTEN to correct an error into which 
I am suspected to have fallen in my last communication 
from this place. I allude to the encouragement I ap- 
peared to hold out to the cultivation of oranges and 
vines, in preference to that of corn, pulse, and wheat. 
As nothing could indicate the shallow politician more 
than such a preference, I shall here endeavour to make 
myself appear more reasonable, and to be better under- 
stood. 

God forbid, that I should encourage the progress of 
luxury instead of the comforts and necessaries of man ! 
All I could have proposed, therefore, can only extend 
to recommending, . that the cultivation of oranges should 
be encouraged on lava districts, but by no means on 
lands proper for the growth of wheat, beans, and 
corn. These are the only true source of plenty. The 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 73 

wheat-sheaf is revered and considered by all nations as 
the emblem of a staple commodity. I hope I have 
assigned no reasons for shewing why it should not be 
sacred in my estimation. Providence has accorded to 
this island a superior capacity for multiplying all the 
necessaries of life ; can I have been so absurd as to have 
given any motives for reducing or diminishing the 
number of them ? Can I have asserted ridiculously 
that the cultivation of oranges stands in competition 
with the cultivation of corn and wheat ? Certainly not ! 
Because, when oranges are the produce, the gain, if it 
can be so called, is limited ; but in growing provisions 
of an essential kind, a blessing is widely diffused through- 
out the whole community. The landholders are more 
certainly paid, the orange crop being subject to various 
casualties ; the peasantry are employed, the poor fed, 
and the merchants enriched by exporting the surplus. 

This, then, is the essential point which commands 
recommendation in St. Michael's, and which demands 
the attention of England. This, too, is the point, which 
originally induced me to hope, that the Azores would 
hereafter be mixed up and compromised in your interests. 
Great Britain, though a fertile, is but a small, island, 
and the price of her provisions so high, that it plunges 
in want and misery the greater part of the industrious 



74 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

labouring poor, and also bears painfully hard upon such 
as have circumscribed incomes, curates, subaltern officers, 
soldiers, widows, and orphans. I could point out the 
true cause of an exorbitant price which, in its pernicious 
effects, operates as a famine or a scarcity, but it is here 
no part of my province: it is my duty and wish merely 
to point out the means of plenty ; and, in order to lay 
the foundation of that blessing, I do most earnestly 
recommend a closer union with these islands, at the same 
time I would recommend to the islanders that enlarged 
system of agriculture which will enable them to meet all 
,the demands of your markets. 

The importance of this union to the English nation is 
so obvious, that it surely needs no further explanation. 
Assume the protection of the Azores, and, by pro- 
moting Azorean industry, you will insure a fountain of 
abundance for your own country. 

It is well known, that immense sums of money have, 
for some years past, been sent into France, and into the 
Baltic, for corn, which you might be supplied with from 
hence, and this without enriching an enemy against 
whose revenue you ought rather to contend. But, surely, 
it requires no argument to be convinced, that you ought 
to take from countries under your protection whatever 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 75 

they can supply you with, because such countries take 
your commodities in return ; or, even if they do not, 
whatever they get ultimately centers in the superior 
kingdom. 

I do not want leisure to study, and I hope I am not 
without capacity to understand your domestic politics ; 
and yet, I must confess, I do not comprehend them. 

Occupied for a long time with a foreign war, and 
blinded, at the same time, by the most inveterate 
prejudice, England does not appear to discern, that 
the power of France has destroyed the continental 
balance, and shut her out from all those ports which 
contained her principal sources of provisions. Occu- 
pied in humbling the pride of France, she has run 
herself into the most imminent danger ; a more 
imminent danger than her history can furnish any 
other instance of ; that of having the necessaries of 
life bearing a value above the price of labor, while 
the price of labor, with the value of the necessaries 
of life, are deemed objects of inferior consideration 
to schemes of conquest and projects of dominion. — 
The price of wheaten flour is daily rising in England. 
Shut out from the corn countries of the continent, 
and said to be on the eve of war with America, 

M 



76 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

I am at a loss to think where you are to look for 
bread. 

Influenced by these considerations, I have been par- 
ticular in my investigations, and I am authorized to state, 
that this island and its tributary, St. Mary's, if pushed 
to the extent of their capacity, would serve as an ample 
granary for England, and compel the price of her 
markets to fall to a level with labor, and the other general 
means of the people. 



LETTER XIII. 



st. Michael's continued. — picturesque view of a 
tour made through the island. 

MY various excursions in this very inter- 
esting Island, have made so forcible an impression on 
my mind, that I scarcely can find words to describe them, 
as I think, sufficiently ; or models in ancient or modern 
Travels to reach their similitude. The novelty of the 
scenery, and the uncommon character of the occurrences, 
bringing them before the eye as objects of the greatest 
singularity and admiration. I shall confine myself to 
four of the most remarkable of those excursions ; namely, 
firstly, from hence to the Furnas ; secondly, from the 
Furnas to Ribeira Grande ; thirdly, from Ribeira 
Grande to the Caldeiras in the Mountains ; and, fourthly, 
from the Caldeiras to the Valley of the Seven Cities, 
and the Grand and Azure Lakes. 

My determination with regard to visiting the Furnas, 
was no sooner made public, than I was accosted by a 
person who was happy to engage in my service as a 

m 2 



78 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

guide, and who hired me two asses for the journey ; the 
one for my provisions, the other to ride on. I proposed 
hiring a third for this person, but he declined the offer, 
and preferred walking, although he well knew that the 
route lay over flinty lava, sharp scoria?, and volcanic sand. 
I was advised to take asses, the roads being considered 
too rugged and abundant in precipices to be safe for 
horses. Experience amply justified the counsel of my 
friends ; I found the asses not only acquainted with 
the safest track, but that they could be depended upon 
in situations, and under circumstances in which a horse 
would almost inevitably fail, and cost the rider his life. 
Thus mounted, and followed by the guide, hooting and 
goading the beasts along, and joyously singing songs of 
praise to St. Antonio for the good fortune of being so 
well employed, I took the high road of the Rosto de 
Cam, and passing through the tow ns of Alagoa and Agoa 
de Pao, arrived at Villa Franca on the evening of my 
first day^s journey, and which occupied the time of four 
hours; being equal to a distance of about twelve English 
miles. 

During the progress of this journey I passed through 
three distinct regions, each of which presented changes of 
scene and novelty in appearance too multitudinous to be 
described ; but whose outline may be resolved into 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 79 

irregular lava, interspersed with vineyards and orange 
gardens, for the first three miles ; rich corn and pasture 
grounds for the next five ; and hills and mountains, 
difficult and perilous, for the remainder. But, should 
the tide be out, it is possible to travel along the shore, 
although it requires much resolution to descend, and 
afterwards much strength of mind to ride under, the 
stupendous, and often overhanging, cliffs, that resist 
the unremitting fury of the ocean. 

The latter part of the internal road lies over old lavas 
and the mouths of extinguished volcanoes, many of 
which are the seats of hamlets and villas, or converted 
into corn fields, vineyards, and orange gardens. The 
lava from these volcanoes flowed for the most part 
towards the sea, and forms a component part in the base 
of the cliffs. — The cliffs vary in height from three hun- 
dred to one thousand feet ; and, in figure, from a pointed 
promontory to flat and perpendicular sides, crowed 
with conical and hemispherical points, according to the 
nature of the vicissitudes to which they owe their for- 
mation. They are covered with a rich verdure and 
beautiful shrubs. There is but one exception to this 
general feature of natural fertility ; that is, the mountain 
called Pico do Fogo, ( Peak of Fire, J which derives this 
name from the tinge of fiery color which its summit 



80 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

exhibits, and which was produced by an eruption of 
iron ore, the cinders and ashes of which are not as vet 
changed or modified by external circumstances, although 
one hundred years have elapsed since the terrific event. 

On my arrival at Villa Franca, I readily perceived 
that it is an ancient town, founded on lava, and partly 
destroyed by earthquakes, particularly by one dreadful 
visitation of this nature which occurred at the same 
time that the Pico do Fogo was discharging its destruc- 
tive torrents of metallic fire. The vertex of the volcano 
which constituted the original foundations of the town, 
ports, and harbour, is seen at about two miles distant, 
and evidences of the ruinous earthquake that destroyed 
those objects every where abound. Indeed so strong 
are the testimonies, that, at low water, the ruins of the 
ancient harbour are visible ; and, from the immense 
chasms which surround the town, it appears that the 
sea did not gain upon the town, but that the scite of 
the town and a large tract of adjoining and connected 
land were forced forward upon the sea. Previously to 
this dreadful eruption the population of Villa Franca 
exceeded that of all the united towns of the Azores. 
She also ranked as the capital, and a free city, enjoying 
many immunities. But that dreadful catastrophe swal- 
lowed up three thousand of her citizens, annihilated her 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST., MICHAELS. 81 

harbour and her commerce, and blotted out all her 
future hopes and prospects of success. The town, now 
thinly inhabited, with about two thousand souls, is 
under the conduct of a chief magistrate and a judge ; 
has a large nunnery, two convents, and a parish church, 
and sends two-thirds of the productions of its vicinity 
to Ponta del Gada for exportation. Those productions 
consist of oranges, wine, wheat, small pulse, and Indian 
corn. All of which are conveyed by land, on asses, or 
by water, in shallops, according to the exigency of the 
demand and the reigning character of the winds and 
weather. 

But the most remarkable subject relative to Villa 
Franca is the Porto do Ilheo, which remains to be 
described. In ancient times there stood an island in 
the sea, at about three quarters of a mile distant from 
the former harbour, and there is abundant reason for 
conjecture, that this island was originally a high plain, 
inasmuch as the base is composed of primitive sub- 
stances, and its present mountainous circumference 
entirely formed of volcanic strata, varying with the 
nature of the eruptions, and modified by intervening 
time and the influences of sun and air. In the process 
of ages, it would appear, that a vertex had opened which 
discharged dreadful torrents of lava, and showers of 



82 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

cinders and sand from the center of the plain, and that 
those conflagrations after raising the island to an eleva- 
tion of two thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
and excavating all its mineral and other contents, were 
suddenly extinguished by the introduction of the sea 
into the vertex through an aperture formed by a sub- 
marine explosion, or by the pressure of the waters on 
a weak point of the excavated bed. The introduction 
of this element was, however, attended with a very 
extraordinary and beneficial effect. It caused so sudden 
an explosion as to rend asunder the side of the vertex, 
from the summit to seven feet below the ordinary water 
mark, and of breadth just sufficient to admit a vessel of 
about thirty feet in the beam. This vertex, since that 
memorable epoch, forms a port or harbour, to which 
vessels of easy draught resort, both in case of distress 
and for the purpose of careening and re-fitting. Not 
more than four such vessels can lie with safety in this 
volcanic harbour ; but it has afforded shelter to six at 
a time, and has saved the crews of upwards of one hun- 
dred ships which have run into the bason, from time to 
time, when every other hope of preservation was aban- 
doned and lost. — The entrance is from the N. E., but 
as the S. E. wind throws in a heavy swell over a part of 
the bank of the vertex, vessels should not remain in 
the bason during this wind.. In case they do, they 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL^. 83 

must be sculled, as the only way to save them. It is 
generally understood, that the shelter is only good in 
from south to westerly gales. The greatest depth is 
eighteen feet, and the form, similar to all craters, is 
completely circular. Close to the bason is a towering 
pyramid or perpendicular rock, the foundations of which 
are not to be fathomed in the great abyss, although the 
distance is not more than forty yards from the island 
from which it was originally torn. The best point of 
view for seeing the vertex or bason, is from the high 
western bank, or from the sea in the S. E. direction. 
From this latter point, the vessel appears placed on a 
valley surrounded by high mountains, and from the first 
she is seen riding in a bason perfectly circular ; not 
even interrupted by the mouth of the entrance, which, 
by bending to the East is lost to the eye of the spec- 
tator. I would not, for my individual amusement, 
wish for a storm ; but as storms, whether wished for or 
not, will sometimes happen, I may say, without viola- 
tion of humanity, I should willingly look upon them 
from the summit of this vertex, and enjoy the magic 
scene of seeing a vessel suddenly enter and find security 
in a place once the theatre of the most dreadful and 
terrific operations ever exhibited by the destructive 
agents of Nature. 



N 



LETTER XIV. 



THE PORTO DO ILHEO OF VILLA FRANCA. REMARKS 
ON THE ORIGINAL FORMATION OF THE ISLANDS — 
ON VOLCANOES, EARTHQUAKES, &C. 

I FEEL considerable encouragement to proceed in 
this correspondence, both from the attention with which 
you distinguish it, and from a reasonable confidence 
that you appreciate the difficulties to which a con- 
tinuation of it exposes me. But, have the goodness to 
consider, that it is not with a writer as it is with an 
artist. Guided by genius, a Titian or an Angelo can, 
at one flight, reach the summit of his art ; but, what- 
ever capacity you may allow to an investigator of 
Nature, still, in the wastes of science, he can only 
advance step by step. In his way he finds absurdities 
to engage, and prejudices to conquer, which require 
faculties not always at command, and circumstances of 
felicity perhaps not always to be enjoyed. The prin- 
cipal obstructions to this correspondence arise from the 
singularity of the subjects and the novelty of opinion 
which I am compelled to offer in their description. For 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 85 

instance, having in my last attributed the formation of 
the Porto do Ilheo to volcanic eruptions, and the power 
of earthquakes, excited by the introduction of water 
into the fiery region of the volcano, I consider it neces- 
sary to state the appearances on which I establish such 
opinion. 




Whatever may have been the primitive figure of the 
Porto do Ilheo, there can be no doubt but that this 
figure was changed through the agency of fire, which 
made it assume a kind of obtuse truncated cone, termi- 
nating in a circular vertex. This conviction is impressed 
by the volcanic remains which constitute the walls of 
the truncated cone of the vertex, and by the primitive 
substances which compose the base upon which that 
cone stands elevated. That it vomited flames under 
this figure for a number of ages is also certain, and why, 
and from what causes it ceased to burn, is the only ques- 
tion that solicits the naturalist's investigation. That the 

n 2 



86 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

shock of an earthquake, taking its origin from the violent 
expansion of subterraneous air, and occasioned by the 
sudden action of water on mineral fire, was the cause of 
the cessation cannot be disputed ; therefore the difficulty 
contracts its circle, and appears to be merely this : — 
Whether the water gained access to the caverns of liquid 
fire, by the gradual waste of the truncated cone from the 
flowing of the lava in one particular direction, or whe- 
ther it gained access through the falling in of the vaults 
of such caverns, lying as they do immediately under the 
immensity of the ocean. There is no difficulty in solving 
these questions. The most ordinary observer is com- 
petent to their solution. For the most ordinary 
observer must perceive, that the sides of the opening 
in the cone, above the mouth, through which the water 
finds an entrance, do not present an undulating surface, 
such as is produced by the gradual flow of lava and the 
constant attrition of waters, but he instantly perceives 
that they exhibit that rugged and broken appearance, 
and those mutual protrusions and indentions which can 
only arise from an earthquake, or from some sudden and 
violent convulsion of nature. 

I might here, with propriety, end this disquisition 
and proceed with the detail of my excursion ; but, as I 
have advanced the hypothesis of earthquakes produced 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 87 

through the agency of water, it may not be superfluous 
here to show the principles which direct my determina- 
tion. To expose this theory, it will be sufficient to 
observe, that the air of the subterraneous caverns under 
the Porto do Ilheo, being lighter than the element which 
pressed upon it, and more elastic than the atmosphere 
encompassing the earth, it was for ever searching for the 
means of rising to a height on which the air was of the 
same specific gravity with itself. In this situation it 
floated till it became suddenly rarefied and expanded by 
the violent effervescence occasioned by the bursting in 
of the waters upon the mineral and metallic fires pre- 
viously burning in the caves. Thus rarefied and ex- 
panded by effervescence, and with its specific gravity 
lessened, and the diminution of its weight proportioned 
to the effervescence, the whole mass above it was com- 
pelled to yield to this dilated power, and to suffer it to 
ascend to an atmosphere of the same specific gravity 
with itself. In this state of increased inflammability 
and dilatation, it naturally took the direction or current 
of the vertex in the centre of the island, and finding the 
cone of this vertex too contracted for its velocity and 
volume, it went off with a terrible explosion, agitating 
the sea, and rending the cone of the vertex from its 
summit to its base. And also separating the object 
called the pyramid, which I have before mentioned, 



88 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

from the body of the island to which it was attached. 
This tremendous concussion, however, produced the 
beneficial effect of forming a harbour which has since 
saved many hundred lives ; for it opened an entrance 
into the vertex from the ocean, and formed a bason into 
which there passes not a winter that vessels do not 
run for succour, and when every other hope is abso- 
lutely lost. 

Before I conclude this subject I think it proper to 
inform you, that the most sagacious philosophers of these 
islands have always propagated the opinion, that all the 
islands of the Azores have arisen out of the .sea, and owe 
their origin to subterraneous eruptions. I am not of 
this opinion, because 1 know that the island of St. Mary, 
in particular, is entirely destitute of volcanic remains, 
and that it possesses a pure clay, employed by potters 
with great success. 

I must now describe a surprising phenomenon, in 
present action, which gives considerable countenance to 
the opinion I have hazarded. 

The phenomenon is this. — For several weeks past the 
people of Ginetes and Varzeas, and Candelaria (at the 
western end of the island), had been much alarmed by 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 89 

repeated convulsions of the earth, which had rendered 
their houses unsafe, and induced them to pass the night 
in temporary huts, raised in their gardens, as is usual on 
such occasions. It was reported, at this time, that a 
volcano had broken out upon the Pico das Camarinhas ; 
but on Saturday, the 1st of February, 1811, the public 
attention was turned from the land to the sea, from which 
a tremendous volume of smoke was seen to issue and to 
rise, though apparently thick and dense, to an extraordi- 
nary height above the first region of the atmosphere. 
At intervals a dark muddy substance was hove up to ten, 
and sometimes to twenty, fathom. No flame was visible 
during the day ; it was at night that the phenomenon 
filled the mind with the most terrific and sublime sensa- 
tions : it was at night that the awful contest between two 
of the grand elements of nature struck the senses with 
the most unmingled wonder and admiration. The flame 
did not always ascend very high ; perhaps not more than 
twenty feet above the surface of the sea : but at times of 
remoter intervals, the fire accompanied the smoke to a 
prodigious height, carrying up with it substances resem- 
bling pieces of stone or metal. An explosion on the 
fifth day was far more tremendous than any former one. 
The fire ascended like a host of sky-rockets, to an immense 
height, and the burning fluid, or lava, was not extin- 
guished till it plunged again into the ocean. The distance 



90 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

from the shore is about a mile and a half, and since the 
eruption has in some degree subsided, the spot appears 
like a rock under water, with the sea breaking furiously 
over it. From the shore of Genetes it is distant, west, 
about a mile and a half. 

The best informed fishermen of the Ginetes coast say 
there were soundings on the spot in eighty fathoms water; 
at present no fact of this nature can be ascertained ; the 
place being held too awful and dangerous to be ap- 
proached. This, however, is certain, that the crown of 
the vertex of the volcano, which appears to be about 
two hundred yards in circumference, is now within a few 
feet of the surface of the sea, and that it will shortly 
rise above the surface, and assume, in the course of 
ages, the extent and character of an island. 

You may well believe, that all those who attribute 
the existence of the Western Islands to volcanic erup- 
tions, readily consider this recent event as the strongest 
testimony of the justice of their opinions. Indeed, I 
must myself allow, that it is a powerful datum for them 
to argue upon ; but, as I have already assigned my 
motives for maintaining that the average level, or basis 
of each island, is composed of primitive substances, I 
necessarily continue in the belief that they all took their 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 91 

existence at the first creation, and are as old as the globe 
itself. And if I live to see this volcano rise and extend 
above the sea, it will not reform my judgment, because 
I shall every day expect to see it again buried in the 
bowels of the ocean. While it remains under the water, 
an effervescence of its fiery contents will be fed by the 
water, which it intermittingly receives, but so soon as 
that source of inflammability fails, the cone of the vertex 
will fall in, and the sea by gaining a complete domina- 
tion over the volcano, will cause a tremendous earth- 
quake, and drive the subterraneous flames to kindle 
conflagration in caverns more remote, and to create 
eruptions in latitudes more distant. For my own part, 
I look upon the opening of this volcano in the sea as 
the most auspicious and providential occurrence that 
could have happened to this island. It proves, also, 
my former assertion, that the subterraneous conflagra- 
tion is travelling to the westward, and that in a short 
time we shall be relieved from all apprehensions of vol- 
canoes and earthquakes. I now conclude this detail, 
and shall resume my excursion to-morrow. 



LETTER XV. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. 

APPREHENDING that you have already 
had enough about the theory of volcanic eruptions, I 
hasten to inform you, that on leaving Villa Franca, and 
pursuing my route to the Furnas, I passed over about 
five miles of a most delightful country, the origin of 
which could not be traced to the expansive effort of the 
ignited matter originally contained within the great 
abyss of the island. This conviction gave it a character 
of sobriety extremely pleasing to the senses, and assisted 
to increase the effect of the picturesque beauties which 
presented themselves in every point of view. To the 
left of this enchanting road, on arriving at the hamlet 
of Saint Joam, is to be seen the uncultivated mountains 
bounding the Alagoa Lake ; to the right, is to be seen 
the beautiful village of Lugar da Ponta, the Porto do 
Ilheo, in the sea, and Villa Franca on the coast ; and, 
in front, extends the Caminho das Furnas, a country 
more various in its aspect and productions than any 
other known to me upon the earth. Corn, pulse, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 9^ 

oranges, lemons, cliesnuts, grapes, walnuts, and vegeta- 
bles of every description, covered the ground with a 
mellow effulgence which was happily relieved by the 
verdure of pasture, and the numerous gradations of 
kindred shades in aromatic plants, shrubs, and trees. 
This peculiar appearance principally arose from the 
maturity and decay of many of the vegetable productions 
of the earth ; which, the season being autumn, began to 
assume the latter hue, and to interpose it in large and 
strong contrasts among the other objects of the land- 
scape, dignified with perpetual verdure. Thus I had 
the advantage of seeing this part of the country, in. 
addition to its permanent inequalities, combine the 
variegated prospect of verdant pastures, fruitful gardens, 
purple vineyards, and flowered fields, than which view 
one cannot easily imagine another more impressive or 
interesting. Indeed it is impossible for the pencil to 
paint, much less for the pen to describe, the diversity, 
the almost infinite diversity, which the multitudinous 
and chequered scenes of the Caminha das Furnas displays 
in the fall of the year. Even the diversity of an orange 
tree is very considerable; bearing fruit, verdure, and 
flowers, of various complexions and shades, at one and 
the same time. But the season, as I observed, was 
highly favorable to the scenery during my journey. The 
annual process of vegetation was nearly finished ; Nature 

o 2 



94 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

had exhausted her productive energies, and, like a mu- 
nificent mother, was pouring her manifold blessings into 
the arms of her children, eager to receive them. The 
horn of plenty was flowing for the supply of their neces- 
sities. The time of my observation was also fortunate. 
The sun was but just diffusing his refulgent beams over 
the fruitful land, and the villagers and peasants, who 
lived by the sweat of their brow, were collecting to 
pursue their respective functions. Accordingly, some 
were engaged in cutting the corn, and some in binding 
the sheaves ; some were employed in the sunny vine- 
yard, and others in the shade of the orange grove ; here 
the brawny stripling was driving his goats to market, 
and there the canorous damsel was preparing the fibrous 
plant, which she was afterwards to spin for her own 
benefit and the benefit of her country. The genius of 
the former appeared to exert itself with uncommon 
fervor and felicity ; like a vital principle it descended 
to his sons and his daughters, his man servants, and his 
maid servants, the cattle and the stranger within his 
gates. The whole population was animated by the 
spirit of industry ; every one was active as the busy 
insect proposed by the Royal Moralist as a pattern and 
reproof to the ignominious sluggard. All was indus- 
trious — save one. 



The individual last alluded to accosted me between 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 95 

Saint Joam and the foot of the mountain leading to the 
Furnas. This being passed a life totally inactive : he 
was one of those links in the chain of society, whose 
labors never improve the country in which they live, 
nor whose example ever benefit the people amongst 
whom they reside. This man was, in short, a mendicant 
friar, whose industry was impeded by his gown, and 
whose faculties were perverted by priestcraft. I con- 
versed much and harshly with him. I am sorry for it. 
His manners were gentle, his intentions pure. I should 
have temporized with him. I should have censured the 
institution not the man. I gave him a trifle, however, 
but in a manner so ungracious that he left me disap- 
pointed and disturbed. This is not digression, it is 
instruction from an event. And, as events lead us to 
experience, and experience to improvement, they should 
be recorded by the traveller as they occur on his road. 

It was mid-day before I began to ascend the moun- 
tain. The volcanic sand, of which the road appeared 
composed, r;?ected a suffocating heat, and the sun 
darted his rays with so much power, that I became 
quite impatient and oppressed. Thus I labored on till 
I lost sight of the cultivated country, and had nothing to 
behold but the unbounded surface of the sea and a country 



96 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

with as few features of civilization as it possessed for 
the first century after the flood. No sound was heard, 
save that of the grasshopper amidst the herbage. 
Nothing living was to be seen but the wild pigeon and 
the dove. Weary as I was, I examined every cave and 
craggy hollow that I saw ; and still, as I made my way 
over the rugged rocks, trod along the narrow and craggy 
shelves, or mounted up the steep acclivities of these 
mountainous regions, I searched all with equal atten- 
tion, but perceived nothing which might cause me to 
imagine that aught of human kind dwelt, or ever visited, 
the places I explored. Nevertheless, I proceeded for- 
ward, and persevered in my toilsome and tedious route, 
although amid rocks, up steepy ascents, and along a 
continued range of sharp-pointed crags, with my pro- 
gress perpetually retarded by almost inaccessible accli- 
vities and rocky ledges, scarce rendering foot-hold to 
the beast on which I occasionally rode. Slow and 
cautious as the sluggish snail in its movements was 
this poor beast and myself as I proceeded. Sometimes 
a large precipitous cliff opposed its vast front, and 
appeared to deny a passage : at other times immense 
chasms of prodigious depth presented themselves at my 
feet. In short, whichever way I turned, difficulties 
innumerous still sprung up before me ; soon as one 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 97 

obstacle was surmounted, another appeared to exhaust 
my fortitude, or to exercise my patience. Faint and 
exhausted with incessant labor and some apprehension, 
you may conceive the extent of my joy when I gained 
the summit of the last and the highest mountain of my 
intended excursion. Seized with a pious pleasure, I 
increased my pace, and inhaled, as the greatest luxury, 
a most refreshing breeze. Indeed this delightful summit 
afforded, at once, a prospect of all that could regale 
every sense. Tufted trees, inclosing verdant spots, 
watered by pure and gelid streams ;.. and the wild vine, 
twined in rich clusters with the myrtle, growing in beds 
of aromatic vegetables. The distant prospect itself is 
grand beyond all conception ! To the S. E. the island 
of St. Mary in the midst of the ocean ; to the N. W. 
the ocean lost in its own vast expanse, and all around 
and under the feet, the devastation of earthquakes, the 
exhibition of innumerable volcanoes, and the app?a-ent 
refuse and ruin of the world. 'Twas wonderful ! J Tis 
a prospect that fills the mind with the most astonishing- 
sensations. I might have said divine, for I could not 
resist pouring forth my thanksgiving and sacrifice to, 
God, for granting me permission to explore the most 
mysterious and incomprehensible portion of all the 
works of his creation. 



98 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

This magnificent summit conducted me to a scene of 
a very different nature. It led me to the verge of its 
northern descent : to a situation from which I could 
view the most picturesque objects under the most extra- 
ordinary circumstances of beauty and terror. The most 
interesting of these objects is an azure lake, which lies 
so far beneath the mountains that surround it, that it 
always enjoys the serenity of a calm, and is so distant 
from the clouds that they seldom obscure the resplen- 
dency of its surface. Bearing the appearance of a mirror 
of immense circumference, it also resembled such a 
mirror in its effects and purposes. Surrounded by a 
combination of great and beautiful objects, it reflected 
them in so grand, so solemn, and so splendid, a manner, 
that they produced in the mind a sort of sympathetic 
calm, which spread a mild complacency over the breast; 
and created a tranquil pause of mental operation, which 
may be felt but cannot be delineated. The descent, 
however, to this lovely scene, was not so long, but it 
was much more rapid and dangerous than the ascent ; 
it unnerved and wearied me with extreme toil. It was 
closed on every side with rugged precipices of dark and 
naked rock, broken into vast chasms ; dark cliffs, whose 
shelving pinnacles were clothed with hardy shrubs ; and 
projecting crags, shagged with bushes and brambles, and 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 99 

venerable with the remains of blasted and decayed trees. 
But the principal dangers of the road are to be attributed 
to the local deluges and whirlwinds to which its upper 
region is subject, and which, like the vortices of the 
Andes, tear up every thing on which they fasten, and 
carry off the surface of every thing over which they 
sweep. On arriving in the valley that led to the lake, 
my mind recovered its tone, and I felt a new pleasure 
in examining more minutely the several picturesque 
components which formed it. The first impression 
made on the imagination and judgment is, that the 
scene, notwithstanding all its beauty and splendor, takes 
its origin from the wild uproar and confusion of earth- 
quakes and volcanic eruptions. The valley, which is 
surrounded by an immense amphitheatre of mountains, 
may be divided into two parts resembling the figure of 
eight with a passage through the center about one 
quarter of a mile broad. This contraction is caused by 
the approach of the mountains in the centre, and the 
dilatation of the valley at either end. The first part of 
the valley is formed like a punch bowl, and is perfectly 
dry and devoid of water ; but, on being inspected, evi- 
dently appears to have been the recent seat of water, 
and on passing through the narrow passage, there is 
abundant testimony, that its waters flowed into the 

p 



100 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

other portion of the valley and formed the lake which 
I have named with so much enthusiasm, and first saw 
with so much delight. 

I have not leisure, at present, to enter into the detail 
this interesting subject merits : I therefore reserve it 
for my next. 



LETTER XVI. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEl/s CONTINUED. 

I NOW again invite your attention to the 
subject which I had not leisure to explain sufficiently in 
my last letter. 

In accompanying me through it, I must once more 
express my hope that you will not expect a style to 
admire or a composition to applaud ; these are endow* 
ments which the traveller seldom has leisure to cultivate, 
nor opportunities to attain : I aim, therefore, at nothing 
above simplicity and truth, and shall even divest my 
subject of such technical terms as may not be universally 
understood. 

Thus, then, I hasten to re-open that scene so lately 
closed — a scene which displays, in all magnificence, the 
the wonderful greatness and wisdom of God in the forma- 
tion of this extraordinary island. 

Having shewn that the valley leading to the lake was, 

p 2 



102 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/S. 

at no very remote period, the bed of a lake, whose waters 
found a truer level, from some phenomenon in the power 
of nature only to produce, I shall here expose a few of 
the arguments which induced me to hazard the assertion. 
The valley has a great quantity of combustible substance 
spread over its surface, with a species of pebbles, formed 
of lava, and rounded and polished by the constant attri- 
tion caused by the undulation of water. These pebbles, 
when held in the flame of a candle, emit a sulphurous 
smell, and yield a smoke of an intolerable stench ; they 
have, also, this extraordinary property, that by burning 
they lose only their weight, and not any thing whatever 
of their bulk. Hence it is sufficiently evident, that the 
pebbles are volcanic ; and that, as their form and polish 
can only be attributed to the action of water, it is equally 
evident, that the valley at one time sustained a volcanic 
mountain, and became a lake when the mountain fell 
into those subterraneous caverns which were formed by 
the continued waste of their volcanic ingredients. It 
may. also, be reasonably conjectured, that the falling in 
of the mountain was occasioned by an earthquake, pro- 
duced by the introduction of water, by some unknown 
agency, into the fiery regions and recesses of the crater ; 
and that the water, gaining a domination over the fire, 
formed the lake which existed in the valley I have 
named. On passing forward to the real lake, and sur- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICH AEl/s. 103 

veying it with attention, I found evidence to prove that 
it, also, was the site of a volcanic mountain, which, 
submerging at a period far remote from the submersion 
of the mountain I have described, and submerging still 
lower by several yards, drew off the waters from the 
original lake, and afforded the means of becoming a 
valley, beautiful as can possibly be conceived, although 
in an infant state of vegetation, and not, as yet, embel- 
lished by the hand of man. 

The evidence which proves the present lake to have 
been formed by the submersion of a volcanic mountain, 
exists in the combustible sand, which composes its bed, 
and the pebbles and stones which are subject to the 
action of its waters. Some of the latter are vitrified 
scoriae, spongy, light, and brittle ; and some cellular 
lava, reflecting from many parts a metallic lustre, and 
abounding in a sulphurous smell. These pebbles and 
lavatic stones, unlike those in the adjacent valley, are 
not considerably wasted by attrition, but they have lost 
much of their asperities, and will no doubt, in time, 
yield to the unremitting action of the water. The lake 
is limpid and clear, and abounds in fish of many species, 
particularly of the gold and silver kind, all of which have 
been introduced into it by the American Consul, a 
gentleman residing in the Valley of the Furnas. 



104 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 

Leaving this extraordinary scene, I had to ascend, with 
much fatigue and difficulty, another steep and perilous 
mountain. The descent to the vale in which the Furnas 
is situated is almost impassable. A portion of the road 
had recently fallen in, and the hollow sound of much of 
the remainder, was a melancholy indication, that in a 
few years the Furnas cannot be approrxhed from the side 
of Villa Franca. The evening had advanced upon me 
before I came in sight of the valley in which the village 
of the Furnas is delightfully situated. 

Reposing for a moment on the overhanging brow of a 
lofty rock, I looked around, and with admiration of the 
wild beauty of the prospect. It was closed on every side 
with immense mountains, from the foot of one of which 
appeared an impetuous torrent, dashing and foaming 
over broken rocks, from one precipice to another ; it 
swiftly darted over its precipitous channel, alternately 
appearing and disappearing as it wound its rapid course 
among the rocks from whose summits many trees hung 
drooping over the torrent. In the midst of the valley 
was the village of the Furnas. The cottages had a sweet 
effect, and their unbroken solitude and lone situation 
inspired a solemn awe, and rendered the bold effect and 
rugged features of the scenery more interesting. The 
church, the monastery, and other testimonies of civiliza- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 105 

tion and industry, formed a striking contrast to the vast 
and savage amphitheatre of mountains, by which they 
are encircled. The descent to this village is very abrupt, 
as I before observed, for about a mile. 

On entering the village I was surrounded by the 
peasantry, who offered me the accommodation of their 
huts ; but, as I had an order from the American Consul 
to occupy his hospitable house, I declined their kind 
importunity, and would have retired to rest so soon as I 
possibly could. In this intention, however, I met with 
an amiable interruption : the worthy villagers waited 
upon me with offers of eggs, bread, poultry and wine. 
Generous in every thing, they would have given me the 
little aliment and drink which they themselves scantily, 
but faithfully, received from the hands of nature. Indeed, 
the simplicity of their manners, the civility and gentleness 
of their carriage, and their hospitality to me, gained them 
instantly my esteem. To this I shall only add, that of 
all the distant countries I have visited, and amid all the 
extraordinary circumstances which have characterized 
my various expeditions, no people gained so rapidly upon 
me as the inhabitants of the beautiful valley of the 
Furnas, among whom the golden age seemed realized, 
and who have as yet deviated but little from the simple 
institutes of nature. I detained two of their principals 



106 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S 

/ 

and their pastor to supper, but had to regret this act of 
civility, as their whole conversation turned on the frightful 
phenomena to which the place was subject ; such as the 
sudden appearance of ignited matter ; the falling in of 
mountains ; the submersion of vales ; the appearance and 
disappearance of waters ; and the frequent and violent 
tremulation of the earth. Nor was the impression of this 
conversation to be effaced during the remainder of the 
night ; for I no sooner laid down to repose, than I 
imagined that I heard the fiery tide rushing through the 
caverns beneath me with unremitting noise, overwhelming 
the soul with too much terror or admiration to admit the 
idea of sleep. The very floor of my room seemed to 
exhale vapours having the odour of sulphur, and every 
other circumstance presented the picture of Tartarus to 
the imagination, leading the mind to inquire whether the 
body was not reposing immediately over a region of 
eternal flames. Lest you should partake in these gloomy 
apprehensions, I conclude this letter, and only repeat the 
assurance of my &c. &c. 



LETTER XVII 



st. Michael's continued. — baths of the furnas — 
red river the whirlpool. 

THE appearance of morning, after the 
anxious night described in my last, seemed to portend 
a sultry day ; and, as I was by no means recovered from 
the fatigues of my journey from Villa Franca, I resolved 
not to extend my excursion for a short time, but to 
amuse myself in the gardens of my friend, the consul, 
which were improved in a manner that evinced consider- 
able judgment and taste. I was somewhat diverted 
from this intention by the entrance of the Padre, guar- 
dian of the monastery, who requested my compan to 
breakfast, and to pass the day under the auspices of his 
house. I have an instinctive antipathy to pampered 
priests, but as the features of this reverend Padre shone 
with the polish of benevolence, as well as luxury, I 
cheerfully followed him to his convent. This is a hand- 
some edifice, built of lava, surrounded by gardens and 

Q 



108 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

groves, and bearing every appearance of affording its 
peaceable inmates an abundant and happy life. They 
amount to twelve or thirteen, are of the order of St. 
Francis, and, though mendicants by profession, they 
possess an independence and hospitality that are beau- 
tiful features of their character, and form a strong 
contrast with the avariciousness and servile existence of 
the continental Portuguese. Their only employment 
appears to be to wander about their lovely gardens, 
which abound with the most delicious fruit and odori- 
ferous flowers, or to sit under the broad walnut tree and 
listen to the music of the birds, the harmony of whose 
melodious throats is increased by an echo reflected from 
the cave of an adjacent hall. Perhaps the peaceable and 
contented disposition of the brotherhood is the natural 
result of a long residence in a portion of the country 
abounding in so rich an assemblage of rural images. 
Lofty hills, covered with verdure, clear streams, winding 
through the beautiful valley ; trees produced without 
culture, here straggling and single, and there crowding 
into groves and bowers, must of necessity be favorable 
to romantic leisure, and to monastic enjoyments. Under 
this aspect we may consider the monks of the Furnas as 
supremely happy ; for they have chosen a region dis- 
tinguished by many charming varieties of rural scenery, 
and which, whether we consider the face of the valley, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 109 

or the genius which it inspires, may properly enough be 
termed the arcadia of the Azores. 

As it is matter of surprize, notwithstanding the beauty 
of the valley, why a convent and a village should have 
been established in a place so extremely difficult of 
access, it is here proper to state, what I learnt from my 
reverend Padre and his companions, that the village was 
built for the purpose of accommodating the sick who 
came to drink of, and bathe in, the waters of the 
Furnas ; and that the convent was erected with a view 
to the reception of those monks whose constitutions 
were impaired either by study or by indulgence. There 
were a few convalescent monks, of this description, at 
our breakfast party ; and, on rambling about the village 
during the remainder of the day, I had the satisfaction 
to meet several ladies and gentlemen of the island, who 
had drank the waters but a few weeks, and who spoke 
highly of their extraordinary qualities and properties. 
I shall hereafter enlarge on this subject : and may now 
remark that, as all the beauty as well as all the infirmity 
of the island resorts to the Furnas, it is the only proper 

s 

theatre for seeing the female Portuguese to any advan- 
tage : it being the only place where they cast off a 
studied reserve, or where they are suffered, by their 
husbands and fathers, to appear in public walks, and 

Q 2 



110 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

sometimes to go unveiled. This indulgence arises from 
the peculiar genius of the place, as we see in the water- 
ing places of England, the pride and formality which 
poison city life, laid aside, and the manners and prin- 
ciples which characterize social beings, fondly taken up 
and universally adopted. Till my visit to the Furnas, 
I never saw the better order of the St. Michael's females 
to any advantage — perhaps never in their real character: 
whereas, on the first day of my visit to the waters, I 
was introduced to several, who conducted themselves in 
a manner equally remote from an indecent familiarity 
and a studied fastidious pride. I shall devote a letter 
entirely to this interesting subject — and now return to 
the topography of the place. 

The village and its dependencies consist of about sixty 
houses, several of which are for the accommodation of 
visitors ; but, as the apprehension of earthquakes has 
confined them to one story each, that accommodation is 
neither convenient nor extensive. The baths of the 
Furnas are distant half a mile from the village, and the 
road is as delightful as can possibly be conceived. On 
inquiring of the Padre Guardian, who was the companion 
of my morning lounge, what were the objects worthy 
attention besides the Caldeiras of the Furnas, he imme- 
diately denoted their situation and name, and as they 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELV 111 

lay within the sphere I had prescribed to myself, we 
visited them before dinner : they consist of springs 
called the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; a whirlpool 
whose name I could not learn, and a river whose waters 
are of a dingy red. 

The springs issue from near the foot of a perpendicular 
hill, and although they are distant but about six feet 
from each other, there is an apparent difference in their 
taste and properties. The waters burst with great im- 
petuosity from their sources, and after wandering a few 
- yards in different directions, suddenly unite and form a 
stream of sufficient power and fall to turn a mill, seated 
some hundred yards beneath them. Leaving the mill, 
the stream assumes the character of a rivulet, and receiv- 
ing some tributaries, bends through the village in front 
of the convent of the Franciscans. The water is bright 
and transparent, and held in great estimation both by 
the visitors and natives of the place. 

The Red River takes its origin from Pico de Fer, a 
mountain abounding to such a degree in iron ore that 
the water issues thick and red from its source, and leaves 
a sediment in a glass of more than one-third in quantity, 
and something less than two-thirds in weight. This 
sediment is ferruginous and adhesive ; hence, the bed 



112 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

of the river is red ; every stone is thickly coated with a 
red saponaceous substance, and the smell of sulphur is 
so strong, that the stream is quite a nuisance to the 
town. I have seen the Red River, which is a tributary 
■to the Mississippi : it retains its .color a thousand miles 
from its source ; and I am told that this stream, after 
disappearing in a subterraneous channel, finds its way to 
the sea and tinges it for a considerable space with the 
marks of blood. The mines have formerly been worked, 
but with what degree of success I cannot learn. The 
Furnasians know nothing beyond the age in which they 
live ; and seem to find their account in their ignorance, 
for they are happy in the possession of a mind pleased 
with a little. 

The next subject of natural curiosity is " The Whirl- 
pool" This singular phenomenon is not caused by an 
eddy, or counteraction of waters in a deep river, but is 
miraculously expressed in the center of a clear spring, 
wherein a muddy lavatic substance rises perpetually to 
the surface, and, whirling round with a quick rotatory 
motion, forms a vortex of such power, that it defies the 
resistance of any animal that falls within its action, and 
sucks down, with rapidity and greediness, every thing 
which chance or curiosity casts in its way. Those 
objects never more appear ; and where the object is 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 113 

purposely thrown in, and tied to a cord, the sensation is 
similar to that which is experienced by the mariner who 
sounds in a deep sea : the line flies from the hand, and the 
lead while drawing up appears of an enormous weight. 
An authentic story is current here respecting this won- 
derful vortex, which is a melancholy demonstration of 
the fatal power it is known to possess. The spring in 
which it exercises its dominion is celebrated for abound- 
ing in water-cresses of the finest sort. One of two girls 
who came to gather this vegetable, inadvertently slipt 
into the influence of the rotatory motion, but not being 
absolutely in the vortex, her companion flew to her 
assistance, seized her by the hand, and held her above 
the danger till the united cries of both brought some 
villagers to the spot — but it was only to witness a scene 
of horror and death. The companion lost her hold 
before aid could be administered ; and the poor sufferer, 
after whirling round and round in the presence of her 
bewailing friends and relatives, uttered a scream of 
agony and finally vanished from the sight ! On casting 
any thing considerable into the vortex the rotatory 
motion increases ; and on endeavouring to withdraw the 
object, the action amounts to perturbation and rage. 
It is considered as idle to attempt to fathom it : two 
hundred fathoms having been tried in vain ! The water 



114 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

of the spring is clear and pellucid ; the lavatic fluid is 
thick and impure : it does not amalgamate with the 
water : it rises to the surface and descends a°ain to the 
bottom, by laws apparently unknown to man. The 
diameter is about twenty feet ; the distance from the 
village of the Furnas not more than three hundred yards. 
That an object of so much terror should exist in the 
most rich and romantic part of this island, is a circum- 
stance that loads the mind with awe and amazement, 
and which I can by no means account for. I state the 
fact with the view of exciting the speculation of the 
learned, and the investigation of the curious ; and shall 
now take my leave of this extraordinary work of nature. 

Returning with my kind conductor to the convent, 
I was happy to learn from him that the wonderful ope- 
rations of Providence in and around the valley, mingled 
with the uncommon circumstances in which they are 
placed, has a favorable effect on the character of the 
inhabitants, by rendering them moral and religious, and 
consequently sober and industrious members of social 
life. Indeed the valley bears testimony to the preva- 
lence of this disposition of mind : it is highly cultivated, 
producing, in abundance, wine, oranges, figs, and all 
sorts of corn ; and shewing a population of a fair and 
florid complexion. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP ST. MICHAEl/S. 115 

You may form some opinion of the munificence of 
nature to this insulated people when I inform you that 
our dinner at the convent was a magnificent one, and all 
the native produce of the valley ; fish and fowl, game 
and butcher's meat, wines red and white, and fruit of 
almost every climate, formed our repast, and was fur- 
nished to the convent by the inhabitants of the valley. 
There was nothing exotic but coffee, spice, and liqueurs. 
It would appear that Providence, from a principle of 
equity, gave peculiar indulgence to a people so often 
alarmed with fearful phenomena, and within the view 
and the action of perpetual fires, 

I remained till the morning of the second day in the 
village, and left it with sentiments of gratitude to the 
worthy Padre, to the American consul, and to the nu- 
merous persons who honored me with their attentions 
and regard. For the present I leave you with the same 
impressions, and am, &c. &c. 



R 



LETTER XVIII. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. THE 

CALDEIRAS THEMUDDY CRATER THE PERFORATED 

ROCK THE HOT AND COLD STREAM THE HOT AND 

COLD SPRINGS THE BATHS. 

THROUGHOUT these wonderful islands, 
nothing can be more opposite than the two districts of 
the valley of the Furnas, known by the names of the 
Caldeiras and the Vale das Furnas. A dreary waste of 
volcanic sand, without shade or shelter, scorched by the 
burning rays of the sun, and intersected by deep ravines 
and yawning craters, where, instead of refreshing breezes, 
the most suffocating vapours are spread, and boiling 
waters, which, rising from the trembling earth, threaten 
to overwhelm the affrighted beholder, are descriptive of 
the Caldeiras ; while on the other hand, shady groves, 
green pastures, flavid fields, streams of the purest water, 
fruits of the most delicious flavor, and air of the most 
balmy fragrance, characterize the Vale das Furnas. 

Some time elapsed before I could summon sufficient 
resolution minutely to examine the Caldeiras. To con- 
template such extraordinary appearances without emo- 
tion, and a fearful admiration of that Great Being who 




LI 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. Jlf 

calmly forms these miracles to operate on the minds and 
conduct of his creatures was impossible. It was impos- 
sible to view them without a sensation of exhausted 
strength ; a disposition of mind favorable to humiliation 
and reverence, and an acknowledgment of incapacity to 
analyze that which soars so much beyond the calculation 
or comprehension of man. 

The guide to the Caldeiras, whose feelings were 
blunted by the habit of perusing this wonderful scene, 
paid but little attention to the devotion of my manners : 
he hurried me from object to object ; making the prin- 
cipal objects of curiosity divisible into ; — 1. The Cal- 
deiras ;— 2. The Muddy Crater ;— 3. The Perforated 
Rock ;— 4. The Hot and Cold Stream ;— 5. The Hot 
and Cold Springs ; — 6. The Baths. 

1. The Caldeiras of the Furnas are discoverable by 
vast columns of boiling water rising from springs of 
various diameters, and to a height in the greatest degree 
not exceeding twelve feet. The air is strongly impreg- 
nated with sulphur, and the impending atmosphere 
receives the burning vapor in the form of clouds which 
exhibit a beautiful variety of eccentric figures and lucid 
tints. The water is so hot as to boil an egg in two 
minutes ; and beans, potatoes, and corn, in a propor- 

it 2 



118 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

tionable time, but it is so sulphuric and searching, that 
it impregnates the vegetable with the sulphurous acid 
it contains, and thereby renders it unfit for the food of 
man. For several yards round each Furnas or Caldeira, 
slight vapors issue from the earth, which leave traces of 
a sublimed sulphur on the places exposed to their action, 
and exhibit colors in which green, yellow, and azure are, 
for the most part, predominant. The principal Caldeira 
makes a grand appearance : the water is cast from 
several hundred valves, and rises and falls as if ejected 
through the spiracles of so many whales. When this 
action is viewed with attention opposite to the sun, the 
spherical surface is seen adorned with prismatic colors ; 
and, were it not for the intense heat, and the sterile and 
dreary scene that surround it, it is a spectacle much 
more calculated to excite a generous admiration than a 
dastardly terror. But the heat is so great, and the ruin 
and desolation so glaring and gigantic, that the mind 
shrinks from the idea of pleasure, and falls into the 
melancholy consideration of such objects only as are 
sad, perishable, and subject to decay, 

2. " The Muddy Crater," separated from the Grand 
Caldeira by a bank of volcanic substance, can be viewed 
but with mingled sensations : it is an object of stupen- 
dous horror that appears to appal the mind, and startle 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 119 

the intellect, at the first sight, and yet, after reason or 
experience removed the first impressions of my fear, I 
made it also a foundation of pleasurable enjoyment. It 
is the same with fire, ruins, hurricanes, a stormy sky, a 
troubled ocean, a wild beast in chains, or a dead monster, 
which, either from their natural magnificence, or extra- 
ordinary novelty, become subjects of agreeable contem- 
plation after they have been acknowledged at once 
dreadful and harmless. The vertex of the muddy crater 
is on a level with the plain, and leads to a vast cavern 
wherein its mineral and metallic contents are in a con- 
tinued state of ebullition, and which it unceasingly 
endeavours to discharge through the vertex, and with a 
violence and uproar more powerful and mighty than the 
waves of the sea when they seek for admission into the 
recesses of their shores. But, strange as it may appear, 
the volcano has a limited domination : its lavatic matter 
swells and rises to the exact periphery of its vertex, but 
never overflows. It is, however, generally known in the 
valley, that- the state of the atmosphere has a visible 
effect upon this crater, and that it possesses a very 
strong presentiment of every change in it. It has been 
discovered, that it possesses this quality in a more 
eminent degree than any barometer in the island. When 
the weather inclines to rain or wind, its noise increases 
from the dashing of waves to the roar of a hurricane, and 



120 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

when the weather is disposed to moderate the roar sub- 
sides to the sound of waves beating against the strands 
of the sea. Nor is it slightly prognostic of the changes 
which are about to take place in the air. The barometer 
foretels the state of the weather only for about twenty- 
four hours, whereas there is a certainty that the weather 
will continue fine three or four weeks when the noise of 
the crater subsides. And such is the infallibility of this 
natural barometer, that it has never been known entirely 
to subside before the most perfect equilibrium of all 
the constituent parts of the air indicates, with certainty, 
that this great decline of detonation will not be made in 
vain. There are also artificial causes which operate a 
change of this wonderful phenomenon : stones thrown 
into the vertex are succeeded by an increase of noise 
commensurate with their magnitude, and cold water 
cast in excites an effervescence and uproar almost too 
horrible to be heard or to behold. Under this experi- 
ment, and during heavy rains, the lava swells up with 
impetuosity to the vertex of the crater, and emits a 
spray of the heat, color, and consistence of boiling lead. 
The ground, for several yards round, is intensely hot, 
and no vestige of vegetation can be traced. The vertex 
of the crater is about forty-five feet in circumference ; 
but, as it is hourly wasting by the ebullition and attri- 
tion of its fiery contents, its magnitude will ultimately 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 121 

expand and absorb the Caldeiras of clear water which at 
present play around its tremendous gulf. The heat 
emitted was so excessive and suffocating that I could 
make no farther observations, and I gladly turned to — 

3 " The Perforated Rock." This beautiful object has 
been formed by the unremitting industry of a hot spring 
immediately beneath it, and which it now serves as a 
covering or dome. The rock is about six feet in 
circumference, about four feet deep in the centre, and is 
perforated, in such a manner, that its surface resembles a 
sieve through which the hot water emits itself with 
wonderful impetuosity and force. I have seen stones 
wasted by attrition and hollowed out by the tedious 
operation of water falling from the eaves of a house drop 
by drop, but I believe this is the only instance of a rock 
being perforated through and through by the ebullition 
of a spring, or the perpendicular action of water beating 
up against it from the ground. The water, which is 
perfectly transparent, and strongly impregnated with 
sulphuret of iron, flows into the adjacent — 

4. e i Hot and Cold Stream/' This phenomenon is 
produced by the ebullition of numerous hot and cold 
springs which rise in the bed of the rivulet, which bounds 
the Caldeiras, and in many instances not more than a 



122 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL^. 

span distant from each other. The springs are excessively 
hot and cold, and, as each of the hot emits a steam which 
rises in a spiral volute from the surface, the general 
appearance is more fascinating and peculiar than can 
well be conceived. 

5. " The Hot and Cold Springs" There is nothing 
remarkable in these, except that they rise immediately 
near each other and possess qualities entirely opposite. 
Those springs which run through mountains in which 
there are veins of ore, take up saline and metallic matter 
and rise extremely cold and those which issue from 
volcanic caverns surcharged with sulphur ascend hot and 
violent, sending forth vapours and exhalations such as I 
have before described. 

6. " The Baths." From what has been observed of 
the other objects of this miraculous ground, and the 
diversity of water it contains, there can be no doubt of 
the powerful effect of these waters as a medicine. But as 
some of them are chalibeate, or strongly impregnated with 
iron or steel, and as others contain saline and sulphuric 
particles, they should not be taken without it is well 
understood that they are adapted to the nature of the 
disease for which they are resorted to. Hitherto, without 
any observance of the physical property, they have been 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICH AEl/s. 123 

alternately esteemed and neglected. Our ignorance of 
them, however/ must vanish if this work should attract 
the attention of the English, as there are many men of 
travel and science in England who will only require to 
be made acquainted with this place, and to see the 
propriety of visiting it in order to receive more valuable 
information on the subject of such inestimable restoratives, 
and to introduce them to the general knowledge of 
mankind. The buildings of the bath are miserably 
constructed, and, from neglect, in a wretched condition ; 
but this can in no material degree affect the place in case 
of an eventual increase of visitors ; labour being cheap, 
materials abundant, and ground to build on, with a 
current of hot spring, to be had at a trifling rate. 



LETTER XIX. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED SUBTER- 
RANEAN SPIRITS. 

I CANNOT with propriety quit the valley 
of the Furnas, without informing you, that its in- 
habitants have an idea that fairies and subterranean 
spirits occupy the caverns and fissures of the rocks with 
which nature has distinguished this part of the country, 
I have had a thousand fantastical stories of grotesque 
figures related to me ; some big, some little, some light 
and airy, and some motionless and heavy as the matter 
they inhabited. 

The world has been used to look upon all these stories 
as whimsical and ridiculous ; but surely these islanders 
have sufficient cause to believe the existence of such 
daemons } from the accounts of this kind given in the 
correspondence of the Padre Guardian and other members 
of his monastery. One would imagine, that matters, 
which the monks look upon as facts, might have a claim 
to some estimation, in the eyes of the rest of the world. 
There are many occasional hints concerning these 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL^. 125 

subterranean spirits in the monkish prayers, but what of 
all other things is the strangest, and most incontestible 
proof of the general and settled belief of the priesthood 
here in the existence of such daemons is, that in an oraison 
made for the occasion, it is mentioned as a very singular 
circumstance, that the inhabitants of the valley had never 
seen any of the daemons they so accurately described. 
The monks content themselves in telling St. Antonio 
that the spirits which torment them, employ themselves 
in raising tempests and thundering under ground. 
There are some, however, who acknowledge that they 
have seen them, and the Padre Guardian went so far as to 
assert, that he found one day, after a violent commotion 
in the earth, a heavy substance, six inches long, in which 
he traced out, with the assistance of his brethren, the eyes, 
arms, legs, and breast of a daemoniac figure. Whoever 
will compare the description with that of the least kind 
of subterranean daemons, will find great reason to be 
convinced, that as sure as ever any such creature existed, 
this was one of them. The event also answers the general 
intent of their discovering themselves, which is allowed 
to be with the evil design of convulsing the earth and 
tormenting the peaceable inhabitants of the valley. The 
monastery does not make a public profession to strangers 
of its being in possession of this vindictive spirit, but I 
prevailed on the Padre to confess to me, that when the 

s 2 



126 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

muddy crater, or mouth of hell as it is locally called, de- 
notes by its detonations an eruption or an earthquake, they 
carry it in procession with the image of St. Antonio, and 
if the cause of apprehension does not diminish by supplica- 
tion and prayer, they flog both the daemon and the saint 
and expose them to the action of the liquid fire. 

After such absolute proofs of the existence of these 
subterranean daemons, I hope the world will pay more 
respect than has of late been done to the good people 
who relate the exploits of them : for my part I am as 
fully convinced of their existence, as I am, or ever shall 
be, of any thing that I have no other proof of, than the 
assertion and testimony of the inhabitants of a monastery. 
I should not omit that the daemons assume at times the 
character of balls of sulphur, and after performing a 
variety of eccentric evolutions in the air, fall apparently 
lifeless to the earth. My good Padre, exhibited two of 
these balls ; they are roundish in figure and of a yellowish 
colour, much harder than common sulphur, of a very 
different texture, and covered over with fine bright 
glossy crystals chequered with amber and emerald tints. 
The proofs that these balls were daemons was further 
supported on the evidence that they burst in the air 
when exposed to the action of fire, and do vast mis- 
chief to all around. It is very probable, notwith- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 127 

standing these evidences, that to you the size, figure, and 
description of those balls, will perfectly agree with 
pyrites, and that the crystalline efflorescences are very 
easily reconciled to them as pyrites, and not to daemons 
or to sulphur balls generated, as some will have it, in 
the air. Indeed I have often met with pyrites, which, 
after a thorough wetting, discovered holes in several 
parts, covered over with crystallizations, just such as the 
daemons of the monks, fine, pellucid, and of efflorescences 
mixed with amber and pure vitriol. As to their capacity 
to explode and burn with a white flame, it is easily ex- 
plained, since many of the pyrites, which have something 
arsenical in them, are combustible, and burn with a 
whitish or greenish white flame instead of a blue one. 
Upon the whole, what the balls are, which the monks 
describe as daemons, I cannot pretend to determine, but 
the world will have shrewd suspicions that they are not 
daemons, especially as it must know that pyrites of a 
globular form, and answering to all the characters of 
those balls, are found in various parts of Europe, and 
that if picked up and preserved any time they grow 
rotten, and cavernous, and crumble into powder. 

Nor are those daemons the only objects of the terror 
and superstition of the inhabitants of this valley. Liv- 
ing on a surface which often trembles and undulates 



128 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

from the violent action of suppressed fires, the vain 
curiosity to pry into futurity betrays them into divers 
extravagant practices, that are not only extravagant, 
but prejudicial to their repose. This weakness, for I 
have no disposition to call it wickedness, puts them 
upon having recourse to prognostics, to soothsayers, to 
interpreters of dreams, and expounders of presages. 
This last kind of divination is very ancient ; but these 
poor islanders surpass all people in the science of pre- 
sages ; insomuch, that, by bringing their several obser- 
vations under rules, they have reduced it into an art, 
and quit their houses, their altars, and their fields, when 
any systematic presage announces a volcanic eruption, 
or a trembling of the earth. 

These presages are of divers kinds ; the principal of 
which are sounds, or divine or daemoniac voices under 
ground. But the sources of these noises, and of this 
superstition, I have already explained, and as both arise 
from the extraordinary character of the place and the 
singular condition of its inhabitants, it would be unwise 
to encourage a neglect of the presages, and cruel to 
condemn the people for seeking even a delusion as a 
remedy against the horrors to which they are exposed. 
The monks have several expedients to frustrate bad 
omens ; they implore particular saints to turn aside the 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 129 

event ; they make the people perform penance, make 
offerings, and sacrifices, and finally, if the presage have 
the appearance of being confirmed, they set up a cry 
against St. Antonio, and class him with the daemons already 
named. The natural conclusion of which is, that the 
hopes from the one, and the terrors from the other, 
result more from the nature of the residence than from 
the phantoms of a distempered mind. I shall in my next 
give you a description of my departure from the Furnas. 



LETTER XX 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. — PICO DE 

FER. 

I LEFT the valley of the Furnas, that thea- 
tre of the wonders of nature, an hour before dawn, and 
arrived at the top of the Pico de Fer just as the sun 
was appearing unobscured by the smallest cloud ; when 
the air was in that temperature which is most friendly 
to man, by communicating vigor and agility to the 
frame, and the greatest degree of activity and life to the 
ideas. 

The access to the Pico de Fer is rendered both incon- 
venient and perilous, for a distance of near three miles, 
by the variety of circumstances which I described on 
my route to the Furnas. The summit of the mountain 
is a narrow plain, or ridge covered with lava, scoriae, 
ashes, and sand, which have been thrown out of the 
volcano at its successive eruptions, and which are so 
loose as to endanger the traveller being swallowed up at 
every step of his progress. The first of the sublime 
objects which the Pico presents, is the immense mass of 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 131 

its own colossal body rent in many parts by earthquakes, 
excavated in other places by partial eruptions, and the 
whole nearly covered with verdure and shrubs whose 
variegated assemblage soften the wild and terrific variety 
of the scene. The observer at this elevation, discovers 
not only the whole of the Pico, but of the valley of the 
Furnas, with its village and hamlets, extensive plain, 
boiling springs, and meandering rivers. The coast of 
Ponta del Gada is also perceived ; and the eye takes in 
the environs of Villa Franca, while the sea at indistinct 
distances presents an object the most majestic, bounded 
only by the horizon. 

The lava on the south-east side of the mountain was 
evidently the last in a state of fusion. The stream, 
though partially covered with verdure, is about half a 
quarter of a mile in breadth, and can be followed for two 
miles where it assumed the bed of a river, and found its 
way into the ocean. The course of another stream is 
along the north-west side, and the effervescence that 
produced it must have been excessive, as it is seen 
through its fissures twenty feet thick, and flows over a 
vast tract of country. The smell is that of liver of sul- 
phur, and the consistence such as to yield sparks with 
steel almost as plentifully as a flint. There have been 
several craters on this immense ridge which have sunk 



132 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

into their volcanic focus, and the spots which they had 
occupied have become deep gulphs, interspersed with 
im mense rocks or blocks of lava. But such is the fruit- 
fulness of the country, and the benignity of the climate, 
that vegetation appears to predominate, and almost to 
hide the devastation which once prevailed throughout 
the scene of devastation and waste. The Pico is also 
diversified by fountains and streams of considerable mag- 
nitude. But as the supply of these streams can only be 
from water deposited by the clouds, I cannot conceive 
that they are regular or permanent. 

At the foot of the Pico de Fer it is, that those vapors 
and springs arise which supply the neighbouring lakes 
as well as the numerous rivulets that take their departure 
from the foot of the mountain. Of those, the most 
remarkable are the iron springs, which, from their strong 
mineral qualities, claim the peculiar attention of the 
physician, chymist, and philosopher ; and of the invalid, 
also, to whom they seem to offer much hope of benefit 
to be derived. From their taste and color it is evident 
how much they partake of the substance of iron. No 
conjecture, however, can be formed as to their efficacy 
from the experience of the natives, as they employ them 
without consulting the disease or the manner and use of 
the application. Some of those springs are formed by 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAUL'S. 133 

the constant ebullition of water at the bottom of a vol- 
canic focus constructed of iron, under which is a perpetual 
fire, and some issue fron mines of iron and caverns so 
cold, that the water almost freezes the touch, and is 
considered dangerous as a beverage. 

Having said so much on this subject, it is proper here 
to remark that an iron mine from which one of the finest 
springs issues has at some former time been worked, and, 
from what I can learn, with very considerable success. 
But it unfortunately happened that while some miners 
were at work, a subterraneous explosion took place and 
buried them and their utensils in the ground. The 
manner in which the monks account for the circumstance 
has put a final stop to all labours of this description ; 
and, though there is little doubt that the Pico de Fer 
contains more iron than any country in Europe, there is 
little probability that its mines will ever be worked. 
The monks observe, that the sulphurous exhalations of 
the subterraneous caverns must adhere to the arches of 
the iron mines, as soot does to the sides of chimnies ; 
where they mix themselves with the nitre or salt-petre 
which comes out of the arches, and to make a kind of 
crust which will very easily take fire. There are several 
ways they say by which this crust may take fire : viz. by 
the inflammable breath of the substance which is a kind 

t 2 



134 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

of sulphur that spontaneously ignites. By a fermentation 
of vapours to a degree of heat, equal to that of fire and 
flame. By the falling of some great stone which is 
undermined by labor, and striking against another, 
produces some sparks that set fire to the neighbouring 
combustible matter, which being a kind of natural gun- 
powder, at the appulse of the fire, as I have described on 
another occasion, goes off with a sudden blast or violent 
explosion, rumbling in the bowels of the earth, and lifting 
up the ground above it, so as to make terrible havoc and 
devastation, till it gets a vent or a discharge. However 
this may be, the iron mines have not been worked since 
the calamity before -mentioned, and I am indebted to a 
second explosion, which led to a discovery of the tools 
and implements of the unfortunate miners, for the facts I 
have here disclosed. Tradition, it is true, says much 
about the wealth of iron and even of lead mines, but 
tradition is not a sufficient light for him who would 
improve from experience and elucidate by truth. Thus 
much is certain, that every object announces the existence 
of lead and iron ore, and of the facility of working the 
mines in a manner highly profitable to the proprietors. 
But superstition and terror palsy the capacity of the 
Portuguese : it remains for the English to bring to light 
the hidden treasures of Pico de Fer : the Portuguese will 
never struggle against difficulties which priests and 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST, MICHAEL'S. 135 

daemons unite in rendering more and more insur- 
mountable. 

On descending the Pico de Fer towards my destination 
on the north shore of the Island, I soon discovered a 
diminution of that character of excessive rudeness which 
I have delineated, and the view began to open a contrast 
which afforded a pleasing relief to the mind. The violent 
traces of divine power and sterile nature were seen to 
yield to a manifestation of divine goodness in a rich 
perspective, where man was seen in pursuit of objects 
calculated to delight, and not to appal, his heart. Houses, 
villas, and villages, flavid fields and pasture lands inter- 
posed every where, and cause the blush of conscious 
glow in him who might have been just before disposed to 
arraign the clemency and wisdom of his Maker. 



LETTER XXI. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED- — PORTO 

PERMOZA. 

After a toilsome descent from Pico de Fer, I 
shaped my course for Porto Fermoza, having the sea on 
my right, and the uncultivated mountains of the Alagoa 
on my left hand. The distance twelve miles. 

The soil of the country through which I passed was 
not every where of the same quantity. For behind me it 
was formed of decomposed lava. To the south it was 
light and friable, and the face of the country finely 
diversified with wood and lawn. The trees are small 
without underwood. Between the trees the ground is 
covered with grass, of which there is great abundance, 
and as verdant as in the spring of the year. To the 
westward the country was found cultivated with a rich 
soil ; for instead of a thin stratum of decomposed lava, 
it was a deep black mould, such as is fit for the production 
of grain of any kind. Here the arable lands were inter- 
spered with some of the finest pasture grounds in the 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 137 

world ; not, however without a few rocky patches, and 
dreadful chasms, formed by the earthquakes to which it 
was at one time so dreadfully subject. To the north, or 
towards the sea, the face of the country changes : it is 
comparatively bare, producing no wood, but covered with 
a kind of thin brush of shrubs and plants about as high 
as the knees : the hills near the coast are low, but others 
rise behind them, increasing by a gradual ascent to a 
considerable distance, with yawning caverns and dreadful 
precipices between. These are not the effect of volcanic 
eruptions, but of tremendous earthquakes which opened 
portions of the earth to immeasurable depths, and split 
some mountains so completely from the summit to the 
base, that the traveller can pass through the fissure and 
proceed from one valley to another without experiencing 
the smallest inequality in his road. In observing some 
of the chasms in the valley or plain ground, I had a 
very favorable opportunity of discovering the matter of 
which the earth is composed, and also of ascertaining that 
the plain of the island is formed of primitive earth, and 
not of substances forced up by volcanic eruptions under 
the sea. 

In one of those fissures rent to the depth of several 
hundred feet, the amazing beneficence of the Creator of 
all things displayed itself in a most striking manner ; for, 



138 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

at the top of all is vegetable mould, composed of various 
substances proper to imbibe and conduct moisture to the 
roots of trees and plants ; under this are sands and 
pebbles, to carry off the superabundant moisture ; and, 
that this may not run off too fast, thin strata of clay 
intervene to stop it ; and, finally, lest these thin beds of 
clay should give way, they are supported by layers of a 
harder and ferruginous substance. I mention this per- 
fection of wisdom in this sort of structure, in the super- 
ficial part of the island, because the same character or 
plan of formation in the mountains is no where observed. 
For on examination of mountains on this road and others 
that I have passed, it appears that they are composed of 
metallic and sulphurous matter mixed with stones and 
sand, but destitute of that system which characterize all 
the other works of Omnipotence. 

It need hardly be repeated, that the tract between Pico 
de Fer and Porto Fermoza, and, in fact, that all the 
Island, affords a great variety of plants to enrich the 
collection of the botanist ; there are also found a great 
variety of flowering shrubs ; a species of salvia fortea, and 
several kinds, which I had thought peculiar to South 
America This was afterwards accounted for by the long 
and extensive intercourse between this island and the 
Brazils, Seeds, plants, and shrubs have been constantly 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 139 

imported, and after flourishing in private gardens, they 
have been propagated by various accidental circumstances 
in such parts as were calculated for their growth and 
improvement. Coffee, pepper, and myrtle shrubs were 
frequently met with, and several bearing a berry the 
juice of which has an agreeable tartness. 

As to animals of a wild nature, those of the four-footed 
kind can scarcely be said to exist much less to abound. 
For during this excursion but one quadruped presented 
itself. 

This beast was about the size and differed in few respects 
from the English rabbit. I also saw the track of an 
animal whose foot resembled that of a polecat or weasel. 
On minute enquiry, I learned, that the rabbit is the only 
undomesticated quadruped on the Island, and that that 
animal has multiplied his race since his introduction from 
the continent to a most prodigious degree. On the first 
discover)' of the island it was found to be completely 
destitute of quadrupeds. From which it may be inferred 
that it was never inhabited before the original settlement 
by the Portuguese as mentioned in one of my former 
letters* 

Nor did the woods or country I passed through 

u 



140 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

abound to any considerable degree with birds. And the 
few that I met with presented little variety of plumage, 
or melody of song. The canary, degenerated in color, 
and in voice, principally prevails. But such is the vast 
quantity of quails, that I might have shot as many as I 
pleased, had number been my object. Nearly equal in 
number, also, are partridges, the breed of which was 
imported from South America, and which bears some 
affinity to the pheasants. The legs are red, the breast 
crimson, the eyes scarlet, and the expression and plumage 
beautiful. The partridge and the quail are frequently 
domesticated, and when taken by snares or in nets, put 
into coops, where they are preserved for the purposes 
of occasional use. I met with crows similar to those 
in England, and kites, pursuing flocks of pigeons, were 
not unfrequently to be observed. 

I must here introduce an anecdote which has some 
analogy to this subject. While I was at Ponta del 
Gado, a vessel arrived from England addressed to Mr. 
Read. I went with him on board, and on expressing 
some surprize at seeing several skylarks in a cage, was 
informed that they were driven off the coast in a gale of 
wind, and were so exhausted when they sought for shelter 
and repose on the rigging, that they suffered themselves 
to be taken without the smallest resistance. This cir- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 141 

cumstance, which had in itself nothing out of the 
common, offered much pleasure to Mr. Read, as he 
assured me, from there being no larks on the island, nothing 
could gratify him more than introducing them ; which he 
did, having obtained them from the captain of the ship, by 
setting them at liberty on a farm which he holds imme- 
diately at the back of the town. That farm he often 
visits with Mrs. Read, and it is difficult to conceive 
the sorrow they experience at such times as they miss 
hearing the skylarks' song. 

At the close of the day, which was so fully occupied 
by the above reflections and researches, I arrived at 
Porto Fermozo, and took up my residence with some 
mendicant monks, to whom I delivered an introduction 
from the Padre Guardian of das Furnas. I was received 
with hospitality, but in every thing there were manifest 
that violation of cleanliness and decorum which naturally 
originate with those who have no protection from any 
species of vulgar life, by pride of birth, or education of 
any kind. The supper, however, if not clean or well 
cooked, was abundant in fish, and as I looked more for 
information than for luxury, I made the conversation 
turn on the subject of the fish of those seas. On this 
subject I found the monks well informed. I present you 
the substance of their account. On the banks of sand 

u 2 



142 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

and mud there are great quantities of oysters, muscles, 
cockles, and other shell fish, which, during Lent and 
on fast days, seem to be the principal subsistence of the 
poorer order of the natives of the coast, who go into 
shoal water with their little boats and pick them out 
with their hands. They are not, however, under the 
necessity of subsisting wholly on this food during their 
Saint's days, for the numerous bays abound with a 
variety of other fish ; some of which they strike with 
gigs, and some they take with nets, and hook and line. 
On hauling the Sune, great numbers of fish are caught, 
and of a variety so great as not to be defined. Indeed, 
lying as the island does in the center of the Atlantic, it 
is frequently visited by migratory fish from all parts of 
the ocean, and the flying fish, and pursuing dolphin, 
voracious shark, and ponderous whale, shooting water 
through his spiracles, are all to be seen at various seasons 
of the year. 

It is now time to conclude, first remarking that Porto 
Fermoza shall receive farther attention in my next letter 
from this place* 



LETTER XXII. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED.— PORTO 

FERMOZA. 

THERE is no manifest difference between 
the harbors of Porto Fermoza and Villa Franca. They 
both had their day of prosperity and commerce ; the 
former owes its ruin to the shock which destroyed the 
latter, and which shook the very island itself to its 
center. 

No sooner had Porto Fermoza been struck off the 
rich chart of commerce by the sudden shock of an 
earthquake, than religion began to enthral its inhabitants, 
and to impose on them that superstitious awe which 
attaches their posterity to those religious ceremonies 
that are alike extravagant and idolatrous. No sooner 
had the wild and merciless decree of fate destroyed the 
harbour and the source of industry, than the affrighted 
natives flew to their temples, and have ever since em- 
ployed themselves to preserve to their sleek and pam- 
pered clergy the full monopoly of their remaining trade ; 



144 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

that is, the profitable barter of relics, miracles, dispen- 
sations, plenary indulgencies, pardons, and all the 
disgusting buffooneries which imposture, aided by 
credulity and calamity, had contrived, manufactured, 
and converted into a lucrative, merchantable commo- 
dity, as if for the triple purpose of enriching a profligate 
worthless priesthood, cozening the poor and the deluded, 
and brutalizing the alarmed citizens of the place. 

I would not dwell on this subject ; but you can have 
fio idea of the trade that is carried on in Porto Fermoza, 
Villa Franca, and all other places here, where commerce 
has been destroyed by volcanic shocks, between dead 
saints and living sinners. Every convent, every chapel, 
and every church, has its huckster's stall or shop, where 
a reverend commission broker constantly attends, ready 
to deliver from his purified hands, each wonder-working 
article to the different descriptions of deluded persons, 
who flock in crowds to this ecclesiastical market, in the 
pious hope of purchasing health, cures, and exemptions 
from earthquakes, remission of sins, &c. &c. 

That this fraudulent, blasphemous barter is encou- 
raged by the calamities to which the island is subject, 
there can be no doubt. But admitting that terror urges 
the people to what they are doing, and that they are 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 145 

sincere in their present opinions, it is evident that they 
have no objections to the dishonorable traffic that 
enriches knaves at the expense of fools. They do not 
feel shocked or scandalized at the impious effrontery 
of a priest standing proxy for the Divinity, and making 
God appear to transgress his own commandments ; virtue 
compromising with vice, and the bounty of Heaven put 
up to public auction, have nothing in them to shock or 
offend the piety of the timid Azoreans ; even murder, 
the most atrocious of all crimes, and against which the 
irrevocable curse of the Almighty stands registered in 
sacred writ, becomes licensed and even justified in their 
sight, whenever the church, always distressed or avari- 
cious, finds it convenient to her purpose to protect the 
assassin. 

But I will pass over the ill-concealed debaucheries of 
the religious of both sexes at Porto Fermoza and other 
places of this island, whose vows should bind them to 
chastity and celibacy ; I will forbear, in gratitude to 
the hospitality I experienced from them, all comments 
on the reiterated vows of chastity and celibacy which 
they voluntarily make in the face of Heaven, and as 
voluntarily violate in the face of their mistresses and 
lares ; neither will I dwell on the well authenticated 
tales of those nuns and friars who communicate by 



146 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICH AEl/s. 

means of subterranean recesses, and, for fear of detec- 
tion, consign the wretched produce of their illicit 
amours to a premature dissolution, before nature has 
ripened the miserable embryos into shape or existence. 

If any one should question the truth of these facts, or 
if the mysteries of these pious brothels should afford 
any pleasure in the recital, I must refer to such as have 
a disposition to give information on the subject. The 
facts are unfortunately too notorious to be denied, and 
too atrocious to be defended. It is not, however, my 
province to dwell upon the abuses of the church, 
or to reprobate that religion which excites so much 
horror and alarm in some breasts. Leaving aside the 
motives of the priesthood, into which it can answer no 
good purpose to wander, or to examine too scrupulously, 
and with which, in fact, we have little or nothing to do ; 
the only points for consideration are, whether the ex- 
isting abuses, of any kind whatever, ought to receive the 
sanction of positive written law, or the still more vene- 
rable sanction of prescriptive right ; and whether esta- 
blishments notoriously injurious to public and private 
morals, of no possible good whatever to society, but on 
the contrary evidently hurtful in all their various opera- 
tions to the general interests of the community should 
be suffered to remain ? I have your authority for 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 147 

asserting that they ought not. I have the authority of 
the church for asserting, that they ought to be held 
sacred, venerated, and preserved in all their integrity to 
the end of time. I shall not take upon me to decide 
between you, although I cannot evince any partiality 
for a culte that tends to degrade the understanding and 
to pervert the heart. I shall say little more on the 
subject of a religion which deserves expulsion by its 
own maxims, and which is fit only for tyrants and slaves: 
in which faith is every thing, and morals nothing ; and 
which is as gross an insult to the common sense of 
mankind, as it is injurious to virtue, and hostile to civil 
liberty. 



x 



LETTER XXIII 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED MONKS 

OF FERMOZA. 

NOTWITHSTANDING what I have said 
of the monks in my last letter, I can assure you I did 
not leave the convent of Porto Fermoza, without envying 
them the life of tranquillity which they lead, and which 
the din of politics and public business deny me the 
advantage of enjoying. 

The monks of Fermoza live a life of tranquillity amidst 
the general tumults which distract the rest of a world, of 
which they hardly hear the rumours, and know nothing 
of the mighty sovereigns, but by name, when they pray 
for them. They are like moles who dig themselves 
peaceable and secure habitations, while the politician 
endeavours to protect himself from the ambitious fury 
of the great, and while the eagles and vultures of the 
world are tearing one another to pieces, and seeking for 
dominion over the weaker tribes. The principal disadvan- 
tage of their retirement and solitude, was, that it caused 
them to fall into erroneous and fantastical opinions and 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF 

systems, for want of examining 
conversation and friendly debate. 

Had I lived in the dark ages of antiquity, before plenty 
had poured her cornucopia into the lap of commerce, or 
arts and sciences had illumined the mind of industry ; 
while manufactures were yet in a state of infancy and 
imperfection, and men were unskilled in improving 
the gifts of nature, I should have envied the mode of 
life and the retirement of the friars of Fermoza. Their 
convent is seated on the most picturesque spot of the 
town, their gardens are cultivated with care, and running 
waters bordered with orange trees, form a delightful 
retreat for the comfort and convenience both of the 
brotherhood and of the weary traveller, who constantly 
seeks the refreshing shade amidst the fervent heats of the 
noon. At a little distance the ocean rolls his mighty 
torrent, in which the Fermozean beauties perform their 
morning ablutions, and rise, like the poetical divinities, 
dripping from the sea, and carnationed by ther eirigerant 
element. The excursions of the friars are seldom extended 
beyond the contracted sphere whence they procure the 
common necessaries of life. Their minds appear untainted 
by envy, as is their body by disease. And their humane 
and generous disposition, their decent deportment and 
hospitality gain the love and admiration of all who con- 

x 2 



st. Michael's. 149 
and proving them in 



150 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

template them in this light, and who are ignorant of the 
vices of their religion and the irregularities of their life. 

In speaking of their hospitality, it is honorable to the 
island to remark that it has no taverns or other places of 
refreshment, and that the convents supply their place, 
and accommodate strangers in the most interesting and 
amiable manner, without any expectation of remuneration 
or reward. On arriving at a convent, the stranger asks 
for the Padre Guardian, who introduces him to the whole 
fraternity, and after shewing him a vacant or an abdicated 
cell for his use, consults with him whether he prefers to 
live in public or in private during his stay. If the former 
be preferred, he lives with great comfort in society ; if 
the latter, his table is served in his cell, and he is left in 
the complete enjoyment of the most undisturbed repose. 
I had an interesting testimony of the unobtrusive cha- 
racter of the monks during my stay at Fermoza. The 
day after my arrival, being much fatigued by my passage 
over Pico de Fer, I asked for materials for writing and 
retired to my cell. While in the act of taking down my 
notes, one of the friars, who was the most loquacious of 
the community, entered silent and cautious, and having 
deposited some apples on a table which he took from the 
cuff of his garment, he bowed to a crucifix which was 
directly opposite to me and retreated without the smallest 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. l5l 

manifestation of his being aware of my presence in the 
cell. It was the same with the Padre Guardian: he 
came in with apparent caution ; offered me coffee and 
other refreshments before dinner, and as I rose to 
thank him, he begged me to be seated and to excuse him 
for breaking in upon my retirement. When I joined the 
community at dinner, all was vivacity and kindness on 
their part, and attention and gratitude on mine, and T 
left their convent with a sincere regret that I should have 
to reprobate the religion or the morals of such men. 
However, when I see their path smoothe and strewed 
with flowers, I shall rejoice ; when I find it rugged and 
planted with vice, I shall repine. But, unable to judge 
for myself, why should I judge for them. By submitting 
to their errors, I feel they lose their force. Besides, on 
a retrospective view, should not my heart yield to, and 
acknowledge the wisdom and justice of that Supreme 
Being, whose eyes penetrate into futurity, and whose 
hands possess the power of punishment, and who has, 
nevertheless sanctioned the religion of the monks and 
suffered them to spread throughout the world notwith- 
standing the sloth and impurity of their lives. 



LETTER XXIV. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. — R1BEIRA 

GRANDE. 

AFTER an interesting interval of rest at 
Porto Fermoza, I took my departure for Ribeira Grande. 
The distance I could have performed in about four hours, 
but the attention I had to bestow on a country, originating 
from fiery eruptions, and afterwards adorned with villas 
and villages, verdant hills and flowery fields, occupied 
nearly the whole of the day. In truth he who has not 
seen this part of the Azores, has seen the world in an 
imperfect light, and is ignorant of the most extraordinary 
productions of nature. Such is the fertility of the 
country through which I passed, that were it not for the 
configuration of the mountains and the gulfs in the plains 
which indicated the agency of fire in their construction, 
the mind might readily be deceived, and exult in a kind 
of internal satisfaction that the multiplicity of beauty it 
surveyed, was to be denominated the natural munificence, 
not the most extraordinary phenomenon of nature. 

The first symptom of existing subterranean fire which 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 153 

I met with on this road, was on my approach to Ribeira 
Grande. It is a light vapour which shoots out of an 
aperture about twelve inches wide in the side of a moun- 
tain through a fissure, in which the road has been made 
to the town. This vapour after shooting out horizontally 
suddenly ascends to a considerable height, throwing out 
spontaneous columns, and varying in colour as it rises in 
the air. It is a very light colour in the day time, and in 
the night it has the appearance of ignition, or the resem- 
blance of flame. My guide filled up the orifice with some 
difficulty, in order that I might observe the phenomena 
which attended such an act. A noise was soon heard like 
the boiling of water with great violence, and small columns 
of the confined vapour were seen to burst through some 
weak places adjacent to the orifice, and so highly electrical, 
that, in the place of ascending in a column, they frequently 
forked or zig-zagged like lightning in a dark atmosphere. 
The guide appeared to think it dangerous to keep the prin- 
cipal passage of the vapour too long pent up, for fear it 
should generate an earthquake, or an explosion which 
would blow up the mountain. This apprehension gained 
upon me so much that I yielded to the philosophy of the 
peasant, and while he opened the aperture gradually, I laid 
my ear to it with the view of forming some estimation of 
its depth by the nature of its sounds. The action of boiling 
water I could hear very distinctly, but while I was thus em- 



154 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

ployed, my guide interrupted me by exclaiming that I 
was engaged in the most dangerous design that could be 
performed. On explanation I learned from him, that of 
the numerous persons who put their ear to the aperture 
from a curiosity similar to mine, they all became mad, 
instantly mad, and were never again restored to the light 
of reason or the rational government of themselves. The 
same principle which made me attend to the philosophy 
of my guide, on a recent occasion, made me respect his 
opinion on this, and I spontaneously withdrew before the 
threatened visitation should come upon me, which, of all 
others, is the most dreadful. 

On entering Ribeira Grande, and passing through the 
usual formalities of my introduction to the Padre Guardian 
of the convent of St. Francis, I made it my first duty to 
enquire into the malignant power said to be exercised by 
the vapour over those who receive it through the organ 
of the ear into the head, and I found the report of my 
guide to be perfectly correct. I was even introduced to 
a victim of its subtle agency. It was a lay brother of the 
order of St. Francis, who was under this afflicting visita- 
tion. The instant he was introduced to me, I could 
perceive that it wanted no very great science nor sagacity 
to discover that his case was real mania. The poor being 
had on him all the concomitant symptoms of madness : 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 155 

his visage was flushed, his eyes quick and sparkling, and 
his anxiety excessive. His conversation, too, appeared 
to dwell on one object ; lamenting ideal distress, and 
thinking himself an unfortunate heretic ; he implored his 
brethren not to report him to the Inquisition, or to 
condemn his soul to hell before he had time to make his 
peace with Heaven. Soothed by promises of mercy and 
intercession, he left the apartment uttering broken prayers 
and latin hymns aloud. I learnt that his disorder was 
seldom outrageous. When it was, the practice was to 
bleed him copiously ; to apply cataplasms to his feet, give 
hira some of the sudorific decoctions, with the intention 
of lessening the heat of the brain, and causing the revul- 
sion of the humour into the extremities, or at least of 
expelling it by perspiration. At other times a dark cell 
and low diet are had recourse to ; but the first remedy 
has been attended with a success which does honor to 
the parties who prescribed it. Four years have elapsed 
since this first calamitous occurrence, previously to 
which, the sufferer was remarkable for the brightness of 
his genius, and the strength of his judgment ; but no sooner 
was the deadly vapour instilled iuto his ear, than the 
coruscation of genius and the soundness of judgment 
instantly disappeared, and reduced him to the dreadful 
state I have just described. Arguing with the Franciscans 
on the subject, and urging whether the insanity of their 

y 



156 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

lay-brother might not be attributed to other causes than 
that of the vapour, they allowed that it might, but at 
the same time observed, that there were so many instances 
of insanity caused by the vapour, and that as they knew 
he had exposed himself from curiosity to receive it 
through the ear into the brain, they were justified in 
attributing his madness to that cause, and that alone. 
Having had no grounds for disputing this surmise I had 
to yield my opinion, but not before I made the most 
minute inquiries, the result of which was, that the mania 
may be caused by the chemical action of the sulphuric 
and vitriolic acid of the vapour, which, by penetrating 
into the minutest pores of the brain subject to their 
action, operated as a solvent, or produced irritation by 
sheathing themselves in the pores of the body, in which 
they become mixed. For the correctness of this conclu- 
sion, however, I cannot vouch. It is generally understood 
that vitriolic and sulphurous acids possess very solvent 
powers, and that they strongly attract and can be as 
strongly attracted. But whether they are capable of 
conveying their properties through vapour and retaining 
their distinguishing qualities in an impalpable shape, is a 
question which I do not feel myself competent to deter- 
mine, as it will require a multitude of experiments satis- 
factorily to prove. I shall only further remark, that as the 
vapour is composed of combustible bodies like metals, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 157 

or the compound ones as phosphoreted hydrogen, sul- 
phureted hydrogen, and the metallic phosphurets gene- 
rated in the fiery abyss from which the vapour ascends, 
it may become so far impregnated with oxygen as to 
possess that peculiar acid which, if communicated to 
the brain, might act as a solvent or irritant till madness 
ensues, 

I will now proceed to inform you that, the day after 
my arrival at Ritveira Grande, I determined to visit a 
caldeira of the most extraordinary magnitude and cha- 
racter, and which was said to be about six miles from the 
town and seated on the vertex of a volcano on the top 
of the highest mountain between Ponta Del Gada and 
the northern shore. Its road was represented to me 
impracticable for horses or asses, I was compelled to 
depart on foot, accompanied by Mr. Purvis, a gentleman 
of great geological knowledge, whom I met at Mr. Read's, 
attended by two guides who affected to know more of the 
country than I afterwards found they did. But I shall 
reserve the narrative of this expedition as the subject of 
my next 



¥ 2 



LETTER XXV- 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEl/s CONTINUED. RIBEIRA 

GRANDE HOT AND COLD BATHS. 

AS the country immediately around Ribeira 
is composed of the richest pasture and arable land, I 
was nattered at the outset of my excursion by the abun- 
dance and beauty of the scene, and with the facility with 
which I was enabled to proceed. In this happy pro- 
gress, the first phenomenon that struck my attention 
was a vapour rising from the center of a level field of 
Indian corn. It was so subtle as to rise from the earth 
without forming any visible aperture, and so hot as not 
to allow the hand to remain in its action more than a 
minute at a time. Learning from the guides that the 
Hot and Cold Baths were but half a mile distant, and 
not much out of the line of my intended route, I 
bent my way thither, and soon perceived the situation 
of them by the eccentric and extraordinary columns of 
vapour whch they send into the air. On my arrival at 
the baths I was much gratified to find that they are 
better attended to than the baths of the Furnas. The 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICH AEL*S. 159 

buildings are neat and clean, and the waters possess the 
most salutary qualities : they have performed miraculous 
cures ; especially on rheumatic and gouty subjects, and 
even persons afflicted with the leprosy, who have been 
sent from Madeira and Lisbon, places where that 
dreadful disorder is generated by filth and indigence, two 
subjects of this description were at the baths at the 
time they were the object of my speculation. The one 
was recently arrived, the other had been there some time. 
The contrast was strong and interesting. The humours 
of the latter had deformed his body and impaired his 
strength ; every symptom indicated a general disease of 
the system, and expressed those poisoned traces of 
imperfect circulation which baffle all medical aid, and 
appear as the sure prognostic of death. But in the 
invalid who had benefited by a residence at the baths 
some months, the waters had commenced their salutary 
effects in the primary seat of vital motion ; they had 
set free the juices throughout all the capillaries of the 
diseased body, insensibly dried up the sores, and enabled 
the lazar to rise from his couch refreshed and rejoic- 
ing. In the same manner, when the sap which belongs 
to the vegetable kingdom is obstructed in its course to 
the remotest branches of every plant that grows, for 
want of natural nourishment or artificial invigoration, it 
is not merely these defrauded branches which perish ; 



l6'Q GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

the trunk itself is speedily encrusted with canker, and 
consumed to its very root. Even the inanimate mass of 
matter exists by the same rules. It is some universal 
though hidden union which holds its substances toge- 
ther ; and whenever from any cause, as from that in the 
lazar, it is impeded or destroyed, their surfaces become 
covered with deleterious incrustations, which, in process 
of time, will dissolve the hardest of them, until their 
atoms are scattered to the wind. This is a wide digres- 
sion from my excursion : it is time that I should resume 
my description. 

The obstructions to my journey commenced and mul- 
tiplied from the moment I left the baths. In fact, the 
hills I had to pass over were so rugged, and the moun- 
tains, which lay between me and the object of my 
research, so steep and elevated, so convulsed by erup- 
tions, and so split and rent by the earthquakes which 
chose this as the favorite theatre for their shocks, that I 
was frequently terrified by the prospect of encountering 
so many difficulties, and often wished to return without 
effecting the object of my pursuit, This timid dispo- 
sition was not a little augmented by the discovery, that 
the distance infinitely exceeded the accounts I had 
received of it at Ribeira Grande. After travelling with 
insuperable difficulty a space of five miles, I had the 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. l6l 

mortification to perceive that the guide directed our 
attention to the summit of a mountain distant at least 
five miles further off, and separated from us by raoun- 
tninc ».- a iior magnitude, between which were deep 
valleys, frightful precipices, yawning chasms, and enor- 
mous rocks. Cautiously progressing, however, we at 
length approached an object of inexpressible grandeur 
and beauty, and which amply compensated for the toils 
and disappointments I had undergone. Not that it was 
the original object of our pursuit which was yet far 
distant, but seen unexpectedly it had a peculiar charm, 
and an influence over the mind perhaps more powerful 
than if it had been the distinct object of research . 

Having arrived, as I have just observed, with much 
fatigue and danger, at the summit of one of the inter- 
vening mountains, I perceived a column of white vapour 
rise from the centre of the cone of a volcano, one side of 
which by being rent from the summit to the base afforded 
the means of seeing the vapour rise in several columns or 
streams, and also served as a passage for the spectator 
to enter without impediment into the body of the cone 
or vertex, and there examine and discover the conduct 
of nature in the formation of volcanic mountains and 
exhibition of volcanic water. The effect of the grandeur 
and sublimity of the scene was, on the first instance of 



162 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

viewing it, somewhat suppressed by awe and apprehen- 
sion, and also by the influence which the noxious vapours 
of the boiling water produced on the respiration. The 
heat, too, was so great as to operate iu tko *«c^« OT . 0 f * 
steam, and the ground itself so hot as to make it im- 
possible to stand any time in the same place. But 
soon gaining strength and resolution from the energy 
inspired by the grandeur and magnificence of the object, I 
viewed with delight and astonishment the configuration 
of the borders, the internal sides, the form of the 
immense cone, its bottom on which I stood, and its 
vertex to which I looked up from a depth of about 
three hundred feet. In the center of this astonishing 
theatre the boiling water rose as if from several thousand 
apertures, and to a various height of from six to six- 
teen feet, tapering off in the regular and beautiful grada- 
tion of the ears of a sheaf of wheat, and forming a bason 
around the base, hot, undulating, and transparent. The 
circumference of the crater, in which this grand exhi- 
bition is displayed to so much advantage, is two hundred 
and fifty paces, and the vapour which ascends rises with 
great velocity into the external atmosphere, and forms a 
relucent cloud over the vertex of the cone. The upper 
edges of the cone or crater are indented in several 
places, and the internal sides are inclined at different 
angles in several parts, and abound with concretions of 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/S. 163 

diversified colors and fantastic shapes. From what I 
observed, I considered that the concretions were prin- 
cipally composed of salt and sulphur, and the muriate 
of ammonia ; I also perceived that in the lapse of time 
the crater has undergone great changes, and that there 
must have been in it formerly an abyss as well as a 
funnel : whence it may be deduced that the crater was 
once infinitely higher, and that its summit or original 
vertex having been precipitated into the gulf by some 
terrible eruption or shock, diminished the height of the 
crater, and blocked up the mouth of the abyss. The 
constant ebullition and action of boiling water at the 
bottom of this volcanic abyss makes a noise similar to 
the waves of a stormy sea, and the vapour which issues 
from it, when condensed by the cold of an elevated 
atmosphere, descends in heavy dew to the earth, and 
preserves it, even in the ardent heat of summer, in the 
most luxuriant fertility and verdure. Perhaps, too, it 
is not saying too much, that to the percolation of this 
dew, formed from this vapour, may be attributed the 
numerous streams which supply the adjacent region 
with water. It is not easy to make a calculation of the 
quantity of water produced by the vapour, but from the 
numerous columns of water which give rise to it, and 
from the immense volume of the vapour, it may be con- 
jectured that it composes water at the rate of about ten 

z 



164 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

tons in a minute. I do not pledge myself for the pre- 
cision of this calculation ; I only mean to say, that as 
there is no absolute rain in this mountainous region 
during the burning season of summer, and as the whole 
region is perpetually verdant and fertile, it is reasonable 
to conjecture that the vapour produces those springs and 
powers which alone are capable of giving to verdure and 
fertility a prolific and permanent effect. 

Animated with the vain hope of visiting a phenomenon 
of greater magnitude and curiosity than that I have just 
described, I left it, exhilirated with renovated strength, 
and pursued my way along the bottoms of the deepest 
valleys and over the summits of the highest mountains, 
to the final object of my research. 

Fatigued, however, myself, and fearful of fatiguing 
you, I must interrupt my narrative at this interesting 

part of it. 



LETTER XXVI. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. — 'PORTO 

FERMOZA. 

IN describing the uncommon and grand 
appearances of nature which abound in this island, it is 
no part of my intention to address myself to the ima- 
gination or to the passions. I intend these letters merely 
as a vehicle for recording the objects I have seen, and if 
my history is not enfeebled by restraint, it is because 
the objects are sublime, and demand that active, vigor- 
ous style which alone can make the reader acquainted 
with their character, and susceptible of the enthusiastic 
impressions which they are so eminently calculated to 
produce on the spectator's mind. I make these remarks 
in consequence of perceiving that I sometimes adopt a 
manner of writing that gives me the appearance of an 
author ambitious only of producing effect. Whereas, 
this manner arises out of the peculiar situations in 
which I was so often placed. This change of manner 
may be traced by anjr man who will pay attention to the 
operations of his own mind when progressing from objects 

z 2 



166 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

of contemptible consideration to those of higher rank, 
or to such as make the rational powers gather strength 
both by admiration and exercise. Astonishment is suc- 
ceeded by admiration, and admiration leads to enthu- 
siasm and investigation. Hence may be assigned one 
cause for my departing occasionally from that timid 
restraint which is favorable to the description of the 
ordinary features of nature. And surely the mind that 
can read a description of an island like this, with such 
calmness, as accurately to appreciate its merits and 
defects, can feel little of that warmth and enthusiasm 
which such a description is calculated to inspire ; — a 
consideration that would be very mortifying to me, did 
I not experience, in common with my readers, the diffi- 
culty of forming a conception truly sublime, or of 
soaring to the heights to which this extraordinary region 
ought to elevate the imagination and the mind. 

Having attained the final object of my research, as I 
observed in the conclusion of my last letter ; that is, 
having reached the high summit in which the principal 
curiosity of the island was said to reside, I perceived the 
mouth of a volcano which represented a gently-inclining 
plain of about half a mile in circumference, and from 
the center of which arose a conical mass of lavatic 
matter incrusted with salts and sulphurs of different 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 167 

colors, or rather a variegated funnel rising from a verdant 
base, which gave vent to the terrific and unfathomable 
gulph beneath, and in which is heard the confused 
noises of boiling and running waters, and a continued 
hollow murmur like the roaring of the ocean during a 
violent storm. From this extraordinary apertue issued 
innumerable columns of boiling water, and immense 
volumes of sulphurous vapour, which being lighter than 
the circumambient air, rose with great rapidity, till 
coming to a more dense atmosphere, it shoots off hori- 
zontally, and forms a track in the air according to the 
direction of the wind ; sometimes forming clouds of 
unusual brilliance, and sometimes resembling in extent 
and whiteness the milky-way, or rather a pure flame 
shooting across the skies. 

But the principal object of astonishment and instruc- 
tion of this wonderful region exists in the prospect 
which it so minutely affords of those dreadful operations 
of nature, or of those violent efforts of internal fire 
which has made her exterior appearance so dreadful. 
From the vertex of the cone the original operation of 
the first eruption was perfectly discernible. The fire, 
instead of rushing from the vertex in a direct line as is 
usual, must have rose to a great height, and then moved 
in several directions, covering the country around and 



168 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

laying every thing waste within its range. This de- 
scription is manifest by the character of the lava in 
every direction from the volcano. In some places it 
bears the appearance of rivers or streams issuing from 
the summit of the crater in different directions, and in 
other parts it represents an irregular surface studded 
with huge lavatic rocks according to the power of the 
explosion and the manner in which the lava was cast 
forth. The horrid chasms formed by the original erup- 
tion are also to be seen, but they baffle description. 
They form valleys more than three hundred feet deep, 
and where the fiery matter gained access during the 
eruption, or eruptions, there exist beds of lava, or little 
mountains, according as the lava did or did not meet 
with obstruction in its course. The terrible effects of 
these fiery streams may, however, be imagined from 
their amazing extent, and from the mountains which 
they form, in the situations just named. The whole 
region around is also covered with hardened lava, scorias 
and stones, a proof that the volcano must have been 
burning for ages without ceasing, and that this greatest 
wonder of nature might have cast forth its vast torrents 
of liquid fire, and shot up its fiery rocks and sulphurous 
smoke to this day, had not an opposite element gained 
access to the dreadful abyss, and confined its action to 
the perpetual boiling of waters whose source can be 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 169 

no other than the sea. I make this assertion from a 
consciousness that the island does- not possess sufficient 
rivers or fountains to supply the immensity of water 
which is wasted by the vapour issuing from this volcano, 
and also from an experience that, notwithstanding the 
perpetual noise, made up of boiling springs and raging 
tempests, there was an intermitting roaring which cor- 
responded with the undulation of water advancing to and 
retiring from fire. 

Exhausted by the fatigues of the day, by mephitic 
vapours and excessive heat, we resolved to pass the night 
on the periphery of the crater and return the ensuing 
morning to Ribeira Grande. This night was highly 
interesting. Several beautiful picturesque effects were 
produced which were not common to the day. The huge 
summer clouds, which are formed by the action of the 
sun on the surrounding ocean, collected round the brim 
of the vertex and blended their watery bodies with the 
sulphureous and mineral vapours, which were already 
like so many other mountains piled up on the top of the 
volcano. The black stormy clouds, passing swiftly over, 
and at times covering the whole or a part of the bright 
column of vapour, at other times clearing away and giving 
a full view of it, with the various tints produced, by its 
reverberated light, formed such a scene as no power of art 



170 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

can express. When the surcharged clouds passed for any 
time away, the vapour rose in puffs from the vertex as 
clear as can possibly be imagined, and succeeding each 
other, hastily increase in volume and rise to the amazing 
height of five thousand feet in the air, or till their bright- 
ness and height are interrupted by clouds of greater 
density and darker hue. At this interruption, or at the 
very moment of union between the clouds and the vapour, 
a bright but pale electric fire is observed playing briskly 
about in zig-zag lines : a phenomenon probably occasioned 
by the clouds having acquired a great degree of heat in 
coming in contact with vapour formed by volcanic fire. 
At some intervals, when the moon was obscured and 
when the clouds forced the vapour to roll down the sides 
of the volcano, there was a mixture of colours in the 
clouds over the crater, a ruddy dismal light, which 
augmented the horror of the region, and made a most 
uncommon and surprizing appearance. While at other 
intervals, when the electric shocks caused the clouds to 
disperse, or when the wind was sufficient to carry the 
clouds from off the summit of the crater, they would 
retire by degrees and form a black and extensive curtain, 
which makes the finest contrast imaginable with the 
splendid vapour which then rises without interruption to 
the view. 

These are the most remarkable circumstances that I 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 171. 

could collect concerning this uncommon subject of natural 
curiosity : the appearances I have mentioned continued 
the whole of the night : at the close of which, the scene 
was entirely changed. No sooner did the sun dispel the 
clouds than the vapour arose in a conical form, and as 
the wind was westwardly it directed the vapour to the 
eastern horizon where the sun gave it the appearance of 
ignition or clouds of fire, more diversified and beautiful 
than can possibly be conceived. But it is not easy for 
those who have never been present at those beautiful 
operations of nature, to represent to their minds, the 
grandeur which must attend them. Knowing the vanity 
and feeling the difficulty of their description, I shall only 
observe that I left the mountain and returned to Ribeira 
Grande with a mind filled with the impression that 
scarcely any thing could be conceived at once more 
beautiful and more dreadful than the subjects presented 
to my attention at every step of this excursion, and which 
are amply sufficient to excite the admiration and to asto- 
nish the surrounding nations of the world. 



A A 



LETTER XXIV. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. RIBEIRA 

GRANDE CALDEIRA THERE HAUNTED— -PEASANT'S 

DESCRIPTION OF IT — REMARKABLE TRIAL. 

I SHOULD have told you, before I abandoned 
the subject of the last caldeira I visited, that a portion of 
my amusement during the night was attending to the 
accounts which my guide gave me of the spirits of the 
damned, which are said to be confined by day in the great 
abyss, and to wander by night within the sphere of the 
vertex or sulphureous mouth. In short a story has gone 
abroad among the peasants, for a century past, that the 
caldeira is haunted, and particularly and notoriously by 
the ghost of one Gomez, a former governor of St. 
Michael's, and a villian ! — but I shall give you my guide's 
relation of the affair, and leave the rest to your own 
discrimination and judgment. Premising, that though 
my guide was constantly engaged from morning till night 
in the drudging employment of a common country 
labourer, still lie found leisure to cultivate his under- 
standing, as you will perceive from his narration — such is 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 173 

the irresistible impulse of genius though borne down by 
the iron hand of priesthood and poverty. 

" Gomez, whose ghost inhabits this caldeira, was a 
weak and jealous tyrant, who saw no comeliness in virtue, 
no deformity in vice ; who issued mandates but for the 
scourge of my countrymen, and who, amidst the luxuries 
of a palace, forgot the duties of religion, sought the 
supreme good in the gratification of sensual appetite, 
and scorned to bend the knee to the Protector of the 
faithful. 

" The fame of a beautiful nun, immured in one of the 
convents of Rebeira Grande, reached his ear ; and he 
offered riches and honors to the monk who officiated at 
the convent, if he would, by force or artifice bring her to 
his embrace. The monk, a person of desperate fortune 
and dark intrigue, who had been formerly banished for 
crimes of the most atrocious nature, committed at Lisbon, 
threw himself at the feet of Gomez, and promised his 
service in this hazardous" affair. By various stratagems 
he succeeded in his attempt ; and, returning with the 
inestimable prize, lodged her safe in the apartments of 
Gomez. 

" The tyrant having accomplished his desires, praised 

a a 2 



174 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

the fidelity of the monk, on whom he lavished favors with 
an unsparing hand, and finally raised him to the highest 
dignities in the Island. In this situation he was suspected 
of endeavouring to intrigue with the much injured nun. 
The jealousy and indignation of his master were roused : 
and, in the first emotions of his anger, he commanded 
his head to be struck off : but, from political motives, 
as well as a dread of the supreme court of Lisbon, he 
changed the sentence to that of imprisonment for life, 

<c In the former city of Villa Franca, the ruins of an 
ancient castle are to be seen, and beneath its foundations 
were those hideous dungeons where the victims of royal 
and inquisitorial displeasure, lingered out the remains of 
a miserable existence. To those regions of sorrow was 
consigned the infamous monk of Ribeira Grande. In a 
lonely cell he clanked his heavy chains in darkness, 
without 'a witness to his groans and tears. This monk, 
in the days of his prosperity, had, by arts unknown to 
generous minds, made himself many friends. Those had 
not forsaken him in the gloomy season of his adversity. 
Stimulated by motives, too, of self love and religious 
zeal, the convent of the nun and the monastery of the 
monk, exerted themselves in his favor, and they succeeded 
with the court of Lisbon in restoring him to liberty, and 
of accepting his evidence against the tyrant Gomez, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 175 

" Gomez was not unacquainted with the prompt system 
of his court, or with the lenity he was entitled to expect 
from the Inquisition. He was also conscious of the dark 
labyrinth of his iniquity, and though he had lost the 
sense of gratitude and the feelings of humanity, he was 
not insensible to the approach of degradation and shame. 
No sooner was the monk restored to liberty and called to 
Lisbon, than this invader of female chastity, this violator 
of public peace, and religious obligations, formed the 
resolution of abdicating his government, and pitching 
himself into the caldeira, as an atonement for the multi- 
tude and atrocity of his sins. Nor is he without company 
in this fiery gulf, continued the guide. The people who 
are sent to this place, by way of performing penance, 
see several ghosts of a night, and hear their cries and 
lamentations, when, at the appointed hour, they are 
compelled to plunge into the great abyss." 

Such is the narration qf my guide. Now, although I 
do not mean to say that I place implicit faith in the parts 
which respect the appearance of the ghost of Gomez and 
of others, still I will relate a most singular occurrence 
which was met with by about thirty seamen on the 
burning mountain of Stromboli, in the year 1687, and 
which was the cause of a trial in the court of Kino's 
Bench. The following is an account of the trial, and 



176 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

which I had from the port-folio of Sir William Hamilton 
a gentleman well versed in the history of the principal 
volcanoes of the globe. 

" Mrs. Booty, v. Capt. Barnaby." 

" This was an action brought by the plaintiff, to 
recover the sum of £ 1000 as damages, for the scandal of 
the defendant's assertion, that he had seen her deceased 
husband, a receiver, driven into hell ! 

" When this extraordinary trial commenced, several 
witnesses were brought forward who proved the words 
to have been spoken by Captain Barnaby, and afterwards 
by his wife. The defence set up was, that the defendant 
had spoken no more than the truth, no more than had 
been seen by a number of persons as well as himself ; to 
prove which, the journal books of three different ships 
were produced in court, and the following passage 
recorded in each, submitted, amongst others, to the court 
and jury, by the defendant's counsel." 

Friday, May 15. — We had the observation of Mr. 
Booty this day : Capt. Barnaby, Capt. Bristow, Capt. 
Brown, I and Mr. Ball, merchant, went on shore in Capt. 
Barnaby's boat to shoot rabbits upon Stromboli : and when 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 177 

we had done, we called several of our men together by 
us, and about half an hour and fourteen minutes after 
three in the afternoon, to our great surprize, we all of us 
saw two men come running towards us with such swift- 
ness, that no living man could run half so fast as they did 
run ; when all of us heard Captain Barnaby say, <c Lord 
bless me, the foremost is old Booty my next door neigh- 
bour," but he said he did not know the other who run 
behind ; he was in black clothes, and the foremost was in 
grey ; then Capt. B. desired all of us to take an account 
of the time, and put it down in our pocket books, and 
when we got on board we wrote it in our journals, for we 
none of us heard or saw the like before, and we were 
firmly convinced that we saw old Booty chased by the 
devil round Stromboli and then whipped into the flames 
of Hell ! 

" After they arrived in England, and were lying at 
Gravesend, Capt. Barnaby's wife came on board the 6th 
of October, at which time Capt. B. and Capt. Brown, 
sent for Capt. Bristow, and Mr. Ball, merchant, to con- 
gratulate them on their arrival also, and, after some 
discourse, Capt. Barnaby's wife started up and said, ' my 
dear, T will tell you some news ; old Booty is dead. Capt. 
Barnaby directly made answer, 5 we all of us saw him 
running into Hell. 5 



J78 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

" Soon afterwards, Mrs. Barnaby told a gentleman of 
her acquaintance in London, what her husband had said ; 
who acquainted Mrs. Booty with the whole affair ; where- 
upon Mrs. Booty arrested Capt. Barnaby in a thousand 
pounds action, for what he had said of her husband : 
Capt. Barnaby gave bail to it, and it came to trial in the 
court of King's Bench. Mr. Booty's wearing apparel 
was brought into court, and the sexton of the parish, and 
the people that were with him when he died. The 
journals were then sworn to, and the time when the two 
men were seen, and Booty died, coincided within about 
two minutes ; ten of the seamen swore to the buttons on 
his coat, and that they were covered with the same sort 
of cloth of which his coat was made : and so it proved. 

"The jury asked Mr. Spinks whose hand writing appeared 
in the journal that was read, if he knew Mr. Booty ? He 
answered, I knew him well, and am satisfied I saw him 
hunted on the burning mountain and plunged into the 
pit of hell which lies under the summit of Stromboli.' 
The judge immediately made use of the following extra- 
ordinary expressions, ' Lord have mercy upon me ! and 
grant that I may never see what you have seen — one, 
two, or three may be mistaken, but thirty never can be 
mistaken.' 



The Widow lost her cause 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 179 

Thus, you perceive that one of your chief courts of 
justice records a case similar to the tradition of my guide. 
The only use, however, we can make of either is to shew 
that such subjects relate to volcanoes in general, and that 
their sublimity and terrific grandeur dispose the mind 
to superstition, and expose the judgment to a perversion 
that can hardly be conceived or accounted for. In 
forming an opinion of this correspondence, therefore, I 
again express a hope,- that you will suffer your imagination, 
at times, to abandon the ordinary objects and peaceable 
convictions of your fire side, and to conceive yourself a 
witness of the events and circumstances related in this 
narrative. Imagine yourself a spectator of the scene ; 
that you see the fiery column, the boiling water, and 
sulphureous vapour spring from the ignited gulf ; that 
you sink under heat and apprehension and often find the 
steaming earth tremble beneath your feet, conceive all 
this, and you will not only assume capacity to appreciate 
my descriptions, but enthusiasm sufficient to induce 
further inquiries into the subject, 



B B 



LETTER XXVIIL 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. RIBEIRA 

GRANDE CHARACTER OF THE PADRE GUARDIAN OF 

THE SAINT FRANCISCANS PLATONIC LOVE OF THE 

NUNS. 

ON my return to Ribeira Grande, I resumed, 
by invitation, my solitary apartment at my friends the 
Saint Franciscans. In the morning when I awoke, I 
revolved in my mind all the wonders I had witnessed the 
preceding eight and forty hours. W earied and exhausted 
with numerous reflections, I at length arose, and looked 
out into a garden on the east side of the monastery. The 
pure air, wafting the fragrant odours of the herbs and 
flowers, in part dispelled the clouds that enveloped my 
imagination ; I felt my body acquire new strength, and my 
heart animated by reviving vigour. While my eyes wan- 
dered over the garden, and while I observed with equal 
pleasure and admiration the elegance and simplicity with 
which it was laid out, I perceived the old Padre Guardian, 
the master of the monastery who had so kindly received 
me, busily employed, among the shrubs and flowers, in 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S, 181 

rural labors, on which I imagined he never deigned to be- 
stow a thought. The desire I felt to explain to him all the 
wonders I witnessed during my tour, induced me to come 
down into the garden, and enter into conversation with 
the old man. After I had returned him my thanks for 
the hospitable and polite entertainment I had met with 
in his monastery, I proceeded to enquire respecting the 
city he inhabited, and to enter into some disquisition with 
him concerning the objects I had so lately contem- 
plated. From the Padre's recluse way of life, spent 
principally within the walls of his convent, I could gain 
little intelligence worth the reporting. I must, however, 
do him the justice to allow that the native powers of his 
mind were considerably superior to those of monks in 
general, and his character exhibited a rare union of moral 
qualities, and his character and disposition peculiarly 
adapted him to the church. To great sanctity he added 
greater candour. His knowledge of religion consisted in 
a familiar acquaintance with those principles which exten- 
sive reading and a long experience had impressed upon 
his mind, rather than in a reliance on the dicta of the rules 
of his order. But his application of general principles 
was seldom erroneous ; for, as his apprehension was clear 
and his judgment strong, he embraced the most compli- 
cated variety of religious facts, and discerned the bearings 
of their effects on society. As he comprehended with 

b b 2 



182 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

precision, he explained with perspicuity, and perhaps no 
man ever performed the arduous task of Guardian Priest 
more usefully, and more satisfactorily to the parties 
concerned, than he did. During a long conversation with 
him, I found his judgment sound, h is understanding 
vigorous, his reasoning cogent, his illustration apposite, 
his language manly and not unfrequently eloquent. And 
I learnt afterwards, that his clerical deportment was 
calculated to convey an impression of awe and respect. 
His manner was grave and punctilious, yet it was marked 
with great courtesy ; for it was not dictated by pride, 
but by a conscientious regard for the dignity of his religion. 
Nor, amidst the amiable qualities which distinguish the 
life of this truly good man, should be unrecorded his 
warm and affectionate attachment to the English, his 
prompt and active zeal to promote the welfare of every 
British stranger, that chanced to visit his hospitable and 
liberal establishment. The nephew of Admiral Purvis, 
whose indisposition detained him on the Island, had been 
on visits to him several weeks, and when he returned 
nearly dead from the excursion, I took him to the cal- 
deiras, he was received with open arms, and solicited to 
remain till restored to health through the instrumentality 
of the waters in the neighbourhood, and which were 
deemed infallible and capable of the consummation of 
every cure. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 183 

I returned from the garden with the Padre to breakfast, 
and passed the most considerable part of the day in 
visiting the convents and rambling about the town. It 
ranks next to Ponta del Gado, and is large and populous, 
but in consequence of the harbour having been destroyed 
by the shock of an earthquake its commercial consequence 
is annihilated or removed to the South side. Like Villa 
Franca and Porto Fermoza, religion, or rather the ap- 
pearance of religion, supplies the place of business, and 
keeping the whole of the community in a state of bustle 
and fermentation both day and night. You will not be 
surprized at this when you learn, that a church or a 
chapel, or a convent, is a place of exhibition for the rich^ 
a theatre of amusement for the poor, a temple of sacrifice 
for the idolatrous, and a hosue of intrigue for the licentious 
and impure. ThLs last impious profanation takes its 
origin from the jealousy of the Portuguese, who seclude 
their wives and daughters from the observation of the world, 
and seldom suffer them to be seen but in going to and at 
church. In consequence of this, churches and chapels are 
made the common place of rendezvous, where billet-doux 
are exchanged, assignations made, and hands pressed. Thus 
does the church supply the place of theatre, ball-room and 
brothel. And to so public a degree does it answer the 
latter purpose, that a lady who proposes an intrigue with 
a stranger will send him word by a favorite duenna that 



184 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

she frequents a certain church at a certain hour every 
day. But the places where intrigues are conducted on a 
principle unknown to the rest of the world is at the 
female convents; I say different, because every nun, cele- 
brated for wit or beauty, not only possesses a lover, but 
boasts of her possession ; corresponds with him publicly 
and sends him presents of preserved fruits, artificial flowers, 
and rings and ornaments composed of her own hair. Never 
was love carried on in a more con amore manner. The 
lover daily attends at the grate, the nun converses with 
him for hours, and the parting is often attended with that 
effusion of sentiment which is the true characteristic of 
impassioned hearts. And yet these tender lovers are 
perpetually separated by two iron gates, and continue 
attached to each other though conscious that they can 
never experience any other than the delights of a mental 
intercourse. At least I could never learn that it is 
possible to gain access to a nunnery, nor is it at all 
understood that the nuns, who enjoy this platonic inter- 
course with the men, are by any means of perverted 
judgment or depraved mind. The publicity with which 
this intercourse is conducted is even a testimony of the 
purity of the heart. A nun whose affections are not 
engaged, and who sees, among the visitors at the grate, a 
person whom she thinks she could esteem, will lead him 
into conversation, and possibly ask him whether he would 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 185 

not be her "amigo" and whether, if he became her friend, 
he would be faithful to her for life ? Where a connection 
of this nature is formed it is preserved inviolate on the 
part of the nun. I met with but one instance of a breach 
of compact on the part of a lady, and that was at the 
convent I visited at Ribeira Grande. And this instance 
is so interesting and extraordinary, that I am convinced 
you will esteem it worthy of being recorded. 

A young lieutenant of an English frigate which had 
been some time on the station of the Western Islands, 
was the " Meo amigo," of Donna Laurino, the most 
beautiful nun that had ever inhabited the convent of 
Ribeira Grande. So beautiful that the attachment of 
the lieutenant was real, and when his Frigate was ordered 
to escort a convoy to Newfoundland the separation was 
mutually excruciating and mutually softened by vows of 
constancy and love. During the absence of this favored 
lover, an English brig of war arrived on the station, and 
reported that the frigate had been ordered to Madeira 
and that there was no probability of its returning to the 
Azores any more. This calamitous news was conveyed 
to Laurino, and unfortunately by an officer of the brig 
who became enamoured with this lovely captive, and 
who, therefore, sought every means to gain her affections 
and to alleviate her grief. To effect this last purpose, 



186 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

or rather to employ the strongest agency he possibly 
could over a Portuguese mind, he made Laurino believe 
that her lover was false ; that he adored a nun in a 
convent at Madeira, and had entirely discarded her from 
his heart. Laurino became the victim of this treachery. 
She exchanged vows, she corresponded with her deceiver, 
and at the end of a few months, her first, her favored, her 
faithful lover arrived ? He wrote to her from Ponto del 
Gada Roadstead, and he received the following answer, 
which explains, in a beautiful and affecting manner, the 
origin of her grief and the enthusiasm of her love. 

" O afflicted and forsaken expectant ! You tell me 
that you long to see me, and that you still preserve your 
attachment for me. 

ee But you ought not to depend on the promises of 
beauties ; you ought not to set your heart on their as- 
surances. I have deceived you, but, believe Laurino, I 
have been cruelly deceived. Having deceived you, I 
can see you no more, and as your rival has acted in a 
manner so repugnant to reason and so revolting to hu- 
manity, I shall see him no more : no more believe— 



Laurino. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 187 

I need not tell you that a woman capable of writing 
with so much truth and sentiment preserved her word 
inviolate. But I must conclude for the moment with 
the usual assurance of being &c. 



c c 



LETTER XXIX 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. RIBEIRA 

GRANDE DESCRIPTION OF A MONASTIC CONCERT 

EDUCATION OF THE NUNS. 

WE read in ancient story, that in the most 
polished court of the most refined period, a reward was 
proclaimed to him, who should invent a new pleasure. 
This may justly be styled the last wretched effort of 
bungling and despairing luxury. The great desideratum 
is at length found by the citizens of Ribeira Grande. A 
pleasure which absorbs the whole soul ; a pleasure in 
which there is no satiety ; which cloys not by use, but 
gains new vigour from enjoyment. The vulgar only need 
to be informed, that the pleasure here alluded to, is that 
primitive, that platonic tenderness which formed the 
substance of my last letter to you. 

Having had to remain a few days at Ribeira Grande, I 
had an opportunity of discovering that religion and love 
are the main and leading articles which compose both the 
business and amusement of the place. The refined and 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 189 

virtuous passion of love and the enthusiastic affections of 
religion possess an influence that sinks every other con- 
sideration and makes this singular people regardless of all 
the more varied pleasures of fashionable worlds. These 
reflections principally took their rise from a concert to 
which I was invited by my friend, the Padre Guardian of 
the Saint Franciscans. I accompanied him to the prin- 
cipal nunnery or convent, where the concert was to be 
held. Numerous spectators occupied the chapel, and the 
orchestra of the performers was in front of the large hall 
or study of the nuns, raised about 20 feet above the level 
of the chapel, and separated from it, but not obscured, 
by a range of iron bars. The performers consisted 
exclusively of nuns. They were thirty in number, and 
besides the instruments common to their sex, they played 
on violins, French horns, and flutes. The instrumental 
was judiciously supported by vocal music ; and were it 
not that the general effect was somewhat injured to an 
English eye by the appearance of flutes and violins in 
female hands, the concert might be said to be enchanting. 
There was one scene which was peculiarly delightful. 
Between the grand divisions of the concert, a principal 
singer advanced towards the iron bars in front of the 
audience, and, on the unfolding of a gate in the center of 
the bars, sung a hymn, the chorus of which was maintained 
by the whole body of the nuns, who were seated on semi- 

. c c 2 



190 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

circular benches behind the orchestra. On the appearance 
of each of these lovely creatures the audience manifested 
an extraordinary degree of pleasure and admiration ; not, 
however, in shouting and clapping of hands, but it could 
be seen, that the colour glowed in their cheeks, that their 
hearts throbbed with joy, and that they listened to the 
lovely air as one would to the midnight song of the 
nightingale. The theatrical features of this scene, were 
considerably heightened by the manner in which it was 
conducted. I shall describe a scene or two exactly as 
they were performed. 

The back ground from which the nun advances is rather 
dark : so dark that the audience cannot distinguish 
whether it is their favorite or not. I shall now allude to 
a particular nun. As she approached a gentle gleam of 
light broke softly through the gloom, and exposed a 
being of angelic form to the sight of an audience who 
were as silent as if all nature were hushed to repose, and 
dreaded to disturb the melody of such an angeh On 
drawing near, and at the moment of the unfolding of the 
iron gate, she threw up her veil, and disclosed a counte- 
nance full of sweetness and composure ; such a mixture, 
as arises from prudence and innocence united. She 
nevertheless sighed, and remained longer than usual 
silent : her eyes glancing on that part of the audience 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 191 

where myself and some other English visitors were 
anxiously attending to hear her voice. Never did I 
behold such a countenance, and when she began to sing, 
her beauty seemed to receive fresh lustre, and every eye 
dwelt upon her with complacency and delight. When 
this interesting being had ceased and retired, the name of 
" Laurino" was uttered with a degree of adoration, and 
with an increased sentiment because of her story which 
was conveyed in the allegory of her song : a song com- 
posed by herself for the occasion, and which at once 
proved the powers of her genius, the sensibility of her 
heart, and the character of her misfortunes. 

The next personage who approached the grate formed 
a striking contrast to the being I have just described. 
Laurino was in full bloom ; and it could be perceived 
that she discovered a solicitousness to please in spight 
oft he seeming negligence of her dress and the vocation 
to which she was condemned. Her dress according to 
her order consisted of a grey frock, with a loose black 
robe all over it, open in the front and exposing the form 
to sight, ornamented with the cross and other holy em- 
blems of the order. Her head-dress consisted of a cap 
calculated rather to confine than to hide the hair, over 
which was cast a long white veil, which gave the entire 
costume a graceful and elegant appearance. But the 



192 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 

nun who succeeded Laurino, came on with a perturbed 
and melancholy step s she wore a black veil, and black 
robe closed all round her, through which, nevertheless, 
it was easy to observe an uncommon dignity in all her 
motions. The sweet appearance of Laurino was as 
pleasing, as the awful presence of this nun was distressing. 
Her looks as she lifted her veil, gave a check to every 
pleasurable transport. Some violent convulsions of nature 
had discomposed them, and yet there was that exquisite 
charm of sensibility in her appearance which courted 
affection, and made the longing eyes of the spectators 
chide the calamity which faded her frame and denied her 
power to sing. With passions all at variance, and a mind 
inattentive to all surrounding objects, she first knelt, and 
then cast herself prostrate on the ground— not Math a 
violent, but with such a character of devout compunction 
and divine meditation as could not be more feelingly 
expressed by a saint from Heaven. Had elemental fire 
struck the audience, they could not have risen up with a 
more general impulse than they did on this occasion. 
Every person with great vehemence called upon the 
blessed virgin, and upon all the host of saints, to 
pardon and to comfort the sufferer then lying prostrate at 
the throne of Grace. Cheered by this expression of love 
and sensibility in the audience, the fear and anguish of 
the amiable sufferer gave way to resolution of soul : she 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 193 

rose, and, after a short pause, performed the part assigned 
to her in the concert with a pathos and dignity, with a 
superior grace which should alone emanate from a virtuous 
mind. And yet, I had the mortification to learn, on 
enquiry immediately after the concert, that her life teems 
with guilt and infamy. That she is a wretched outcast 
from her community, sunk into that most dreadful of all 
human conditions, the acknowledgment that she merits 
the execration and contempt of the world. Her conduct 
blackened by every aggravation that can make it either 
odious or contemptible, and unrelieved by any single 
circumstance of mitigation that could palliate its guilt, or 
retrieve it from abhorrence. Foremost in cruelty, in 
determination and in stratagem, was a young Franciscan 
when he first conceived an infamous passion for the ill- 
fated subject of my pen. This noxious energy of cha- 
racter raised him from the low situation of a mendicant 
monk to be first chaplain or chief director of the convent 
in which his intended victim was immured. Having first 
debauched her mind, he next violated her person, and for 
fear the fruits of so illicit an amour might bring both 
criminals to condign punishment, he prevailed upon her 
to take drugs proper to produce abortion, but which 
failing, he compelled her to strangle it at its birth. The 
doctor of the convent, however, although he acted as 
confederate with the chaplain in disguising the true 



194 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

nature of the illness of the nun from the mother abbess, 
shewed an honorable indignation on learning the fate of 
the child. He informed the corregidor, who sent him 
to the seat of government at Tercera to be tried ; but the 
governor of Tercera, not willing to imbrue his hands in 
the blood of a priest, sent him to the government of Lis- 
bon, and that government sent him to the supreme court 
of the Brazils, where he will no doubt be acquitted from 
want both of evidence and inclination to substantiate his 
crimes. In the mean while the wretched victim of this 
Tarquin's lust remains in the convent with the threat of 
execution suspended over her head, and though excluded 
from the society of her sisters, is compelled to perform 
with them in their public devotions and concerts, and 
dressed in a manner that denotes the commission of crime 
and the urgency of repentance and shame. 

As there is much of this letter which conveys a higher 
notion of the sensibility and intelligence of the convents 
than what I have hitherto given you reason to expect 
they possess, I must here remark that the education of 
the nuns is cultivated here with the most assiduous care. 
The convents of this island are not mere places of negative 
seclusion, they are, on the contrary, seminaries of the 
first discipline and best education. Masters of languages, 
music, and drawing daily attend, and communicate in- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF St. MICHAEL^. 195 

struction correctly though separated from their disciples 
by two iron railed gates. In this respect I know of no 
convents under better regulations, nor have I seen any 
where the nuns are so generally interesting and so highly 
cultivated. Many of them speak the principal of the 
continental languages, and all of them are skilled in music 
and the principles of drawing, and designing paper flowers 
and patterns for lace. 

I must now pursue my journey ; you want a topographic 
not an amatory account of the Islands : but as religion 
and love are the sole objects of business and amusement 
in Ribeira Grande, it would have been unpardonable in 
me to pass over those objects, and so deny you the means 
of forming a just estimate of the character and manners 
of the place. 



D D 



LETTER XXX. 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED. DESCRIP- 
TION OF THE COUNTRY FROM RIBEIRA GRANDE TO 
THE VALE DAS CETE CETADES. 

IT is an inexpressible satisfaction to a liberal 
mind, to be employed in revealing the unknown beauties 
of a country, or the latent merits of a people ; and I 
lament, that I have not more frequent opportunities of 
indulging my heart in this pleasure. This makes me 
lay hold on the first occasion of this kind, with impa- 
tience, to tell you how gratified I was to find, on my 
departure from Ribeira Grande, for the Vale das Sete 
Cetades, that the country improved in an astonishing 
degree, and, in a route of thirty miles along the coast 
presented no vestige of eruption, if I except the Ribeira 
Seca and the volcanic mountains, of which it is impos- 
sible to lose the view. Ribeira Seca was a navigable 
river till the shock of an earthquake opened a portion 
of its bed near the source, since when its waters supply 
those subterranean caldeiras I have mentioned, and the 
entire bed of the river is now perfectly and perpetually 
dry. Leaving Ribeira Seca, I continued my journey 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 197 

through vineyards, orange gardens, and highly cultivated 
corn and pasture lands ; passing through, at the same 
time, the beautiful villages of Rabo de Peyxae, Boa 
Viagem, Lugar das Fanais, Cappellas, Anthonio, Moin- 
hos, Ajuda, and Lugar da Bretanha : a circuitous route 
it is true, but one, which, for neatness of accommodation 
and rich and picturesque scenery cannot be excelled in 
any country whatever. Besides, I intended returning 
from the Sete Cetades directly over the mountains to 
Ponta del Gada, and therefore varied my design and 
augmented my information by travelling along the coast. 
It was not till I had left Lugar da Bretanha that diffi- 
culties began to present themselves. I found the moun- 
tain lying between Bretanha and the Cetades insuperably 
difficult. It was entirely lavatic, consequently rugged, 
and rent in many places into gulfs and chasms. But 
on arriving at the summit I considered myself amply 
rewarded for all the inconvenience I had sustained. 
The view was infinitely beautiful. It consisted of the 
Vale das Cetades, and of the Great and Azul Lakes, 
surrounded by mountains two thousand feet high, formed 
by the very eruptions which excavated the valley, and 
which constructed the bed of the lakes. It appears, at 
the first sight, incontrovertibly evident, that there 
existed three volcanos within the space of these nioun- 

D D 2 



198 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

tains, and which space is about ten miles in circum- 
ference. And it also is equally evident that the volcanos, 
from a principle of absorption, or from a general 
eruption, caused by the introduction of water into the 
iiery abyss to which they owed their birth, fell into the 
abyss from which they rose, and allowed lakes and 
pasture grounds ultimately to assume their place. The 
pasture ground in the vale is the richest in the island, 
and the lands on the banks of the lakes are peculiarly 
adapted to the growth of hemp or flax. They are also 
eminently calculated for curing and preserving the 
hemp, and the quantity so cultivated and cured affords 
employment and bread to thousands. There are but 
half a dozen houses in the vale, and these are occupied 
by the persons who cultivate the hemp. But the vale 
and the banks of the lakes could afford accommodation 
and labour for several thousands, and produce as much 
hemp as would meet all the demands of the English 
market. The hemp at present produced is manufac- 
tured by the inhabitants of Britanha and the neighbour- 
ing villages, and is said to amount to 50,000 yards 
employed for domestic purposes, and for the exportation 
of such pulse as cannot be shipped in bulk : that is, 
this native linen is converted into sacks which hold but 
two bushels of caravanches, and as several ships take 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 199 

upwards of a thousand bags each, it may be understood 
what a demand there must be for the article. The 
reason that the vale and the banks of the lakes are not 
more inhabited is, that the Portuguese are passionately 
fond of the sun, and cannot endure a situation where it 
rises at eleven, and sets at three o'clock. In fact, so 
hififh are the mountains that the stars are seen on *the 
surface of a certain portion of the Lake Azul in the 
noon day, and the surface has never been known to be 
ruffled — not even at times when the trees on the summits 
of the surrounding mountains have been torn by the 
tempests up by the roots. Than the lakes themselves it is 
impossible to conceive any thing more beautiful. With 
neither wind to ruffle, nor clouds to obscure the re- 
splendency of their surface, they appear under the happy 
circumstances of a perfect calm, reflecting the bursting 
lights of the vistas on their banks, and the treraulating 
branches of the trees on the summit of their borders, 
And if an artificial mirror, a few feet long, placed oppo- 
site to a door or a window, occasions often very pleasing 
reflections, how noble must be the appearance of these 
lakes, where an area, of many miles in circumference, is 
formed into two vast mirrors, and these mirrors sur- 
rounded by a combination of great and beautiful objects. 
The majestic repose of so grand, so solemn, and splendid, 



200 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

a scene, I must confess created in my mind a sort of 
enthusiastic calm, which spread a mild complacence 
over my breast ; a tranquil pause of mental operation 
which may be felt, but not described. When I had a 
little recovered from this tone, from the general impres- 
sion of such a scene, I took a new pleasure in examining 
more minutely the several picturesque ingredients 
which produced it ; the stillness and the purity of the 
air ; the strong lights and shades ; the tints upon the 
mountains ; the polish of the lake, groups of cattle in 
various parts along the banks, and flocks of birds 
forming tremulous reflections from their agile wings, 
added new life and beauty to so still a scene, and made 
it an object more highly adapted to the pencil than any 
I had ever beheld. 

The banks for a considerable way up the volcanic 
mountains are covered with verdure, and trees produced 
without culture, here straggle single, and there crowd 
into little groves and bowers. These, added to clear 
streams winding through long and beautiful valleys, 
with other circumstances peculiar to the lakes, render 
them pre-eminently beautiful, and particularly favorable 
to romantic leisure and tender passions. And I do not 
fear to predict, that if ever this island becomes the 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 201 

favorite resort of the British, the Vie das Sete Cetades 
will be considered by them as the arcadia of the Western 
Isles. There is also this advantage in its situation, 
volcanic eruptions and violent earthquakes have already 
exhausted all their powers there, and have no longer 
any domination over the region of the lakes. The 
bed of the lakes has been excavated by eruptions, and 
the lavatic mountains which once occupied the bed of 
the lakes, have sunk by absorption occasioned by earth- 
quakes. The introduction of water, by the same 
powerful agency, has extinguished the force of the 
subterranean fire, and served as a perpetual solvent to 
those materials which serve to ignite metallic and sul- 
phurous substances, and consequently to convulse the 
whole system of nature. It however appears, from a 
recent fact, that the fire which once existed under the 
lakes is not extinguished, but driven, by the sudden 
introduction of water into the vortex of the volcanos 
which once occupied the place of the lakes, into the 
subterraneous caverns which it would appear exist under 
the bed of the adjacent ocean. The evidence of this 
extraordinary assertion I have described to you in a 
former letter ; that is, it is sufficiently evinced in a 
volcano which has burst forth from the bottom of the 
sea, and in the short space of two months has thrown 



202 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 

up a cone, or rather a mountain eighty fathoms high, 
the vertex of which is so near the surface of the water 
as to occasion breakers in the manner of the sea over 
a sunken rock. Thus has the region of the lakes 
nothing to fear either from convulsion or from absorp- 
tion : but I find I cannot conclude their history in this 
letter. 



LETTER XXXI, 



TOUR THROUGH ST. MICHAEL'S CONTINUED DESCRIP- 
TION OF THE INHABITANTS OF CETE CETADES AND 
THEIR EMPLOYMENTS. 

IT is surprising to consider, how local 
national characters are, and how deeply engrained those 
characters appear in the different inhabitants of the 
different parts of the earth ; as if the very climates had 
as powerful an influence over the qualities of men, as 
they are known to have over the virtues of plants. The 
introducing a new race into a country confirms this 
observation ; the native customs, manners, and tempers 
of the northern swarms were, by degrees, assimilated to 
those of the people they conquered. So that, in this 
respect, we may resemble men to vines : transplant the 
one or the other, and for a while they retain their 
original character ; but, in time, they degenerate or 
improve ; acquiring the properties of the soil into 
which they are transplanted. 

» 

So is it with the region of the Lakes. It is the only 
portion of the earth, I have ever met with, inhabited by 

E E 



204 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

a people without vices, without prejudices, without 
wants, without dissentions. Born under the finest skies, 
nourished by the fruits of a land fertile without culture ; 
ruled by fathers of families rather than by kings, they 
acknowledge no other domination than love and devotion. 
Their villages, which are numerous, occupy the arable 
lands which encompass two thirds of the mountains which 
bound the Lakes. The houses are neatly built of lavatic 
stone but do not abound in furniture, and in many a 
mattress of rushes serve the peaceable inhabitants to 
sleep on. In their customs they approach nearer to the 
Moors than to the continental Portuguese. The women 
particularly hold their arms upright to their ears 
and sit on the ground in a Moorish posture. The men 
employ themselves daily in their vineyards, orange 
gardens, and corn lands, and the youth were fully 
employed in drying, breaking, scratching, and kick- 
ing the flax to fit it for spinning, while the women were 
occupied in spinning and reeling it, to fit it for weaving, 
and in weaving, cutting and finishing the cloth for the 
markets . 

Knowing the importance of the subject to Great 
Britain, I was determined to make myself acquainted 
with the hemp produce, and shall here give you the 
xesu.lt o£ my enquiries. The usual size of the plant is 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 205 

six feet, but is sometimes more than ten on the banks of 
the lakes, and its circumference three inches. It does 
not require the richest land. The poorer the land the 
finer the quality but the less in quantity. It is known 
to be ripe by its inclination to a yellow colour. This is 
about ten weeks after its sowing. After being pulled 
and freed from its leaves, seeds, and lateral branches, it 
is made up into bundles to be steeped in water. Hence 
the banks of the Lakes present a peculiar advantage 
to the cultivator. But I find the same end is sometimes 
attained by dew-rotting, for those who grew hemp in 
situations distant from water, expose the stalks to the 
night air. And as the dews of the island are abundant 
and strong, it would appear that any and every part of 
the Island would answer the important purpose of grow- 
ing hemp. When the hemp is thoroughly rotted which 
is usually at the end of three or four days, the operation 
of reeding commences. This is done in one or two ways ; 
either dyeing and breaking the plant, or pulling out the 
reed from every stalk with the hand. 

When reeded, they cleanse the hemp of the glutinous 
matter with which it is its nature to abound. This they 
do by pouring water through it and pressing out the 
water after effusion ; taking care not to let the threads 
twist or entangle each other. The hemp is next broken 

E E 2 



206 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

and beat. This labour is performed by the hand. In 
Russia and Sweden it is done by a water-mill, which 
raises three heavy beaters that fall alternately : but the 
Portuguese are not imitators and they never exert their 
own invention — The finer it is required to make the tow, 
the more beating is necessary. 

The coarser kinds of hemp are employed for making 
cordage ; the finer being used for cloth, which, though 
incapable of receiving the delicacy of linen, is incom- 
parably stronger, equally susceptible of bleaching, and 
possessed of the property of improving its colour by 
wear. The hemp of this island is much superior in 
strength to that which grows in any other country I 
have seen, and the finer cloth manufactured from it is 
worn by the natives in shirts, jackets and trowsers, and 
looks extremely well to the eye. When any considerable 
quantity is wanted for sackings, it is necessary to send a 
person round the islands, or at least to the principal 
places where the cloth is manufactured, but, where the 
demand is not considerable, it can be supplied at Ponta 
del Gada on the market days where it is brought in 
pieces on the backs of asses and sold, according to its 
quality, from five to ten pence per yard. 

I go into a detail on this article because I am well 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 207 

acquainted with the importance of hemp to Great 
Britain, and that it is in fact a considerable article of its 
commerce. The cordage and sails of a first rate ship of 
war, are said to consume 180,000 lbs of rough hemp. 
In the year 1788, to my knowledge, the quantity im- 
ported into England was 58,464 tons ; which, at <£20 
per ton, amounts to £ 1,269,280, and which, at an 
average product of one-fifth of a ton per acre, requires 
292,320 acres for its growth. Nor is this the evil. In 
case of a rupture with Russia, as in the present instance, 
England is shut out from her maritime supplies, or else 
has to obtain them at such a price and under such diffi- 
culties as make the undertaking ruinous and often 
too precarious for the exigency of the demand. Besides 
it should not be said by England, that she is to beg her 
supplies from her enemies. Her supplies should be 
within her own control. And how can that be when 
only two of our counties, Sussex and Suffolk, produce 
a small quantity of hemp, and when the importation from 
the East Indies and America is equally inconsiderable ?— - 
If these islands were dependent on Great Britain this 
question would at once be answered. From what I have 
stated, it is evident that the soil and climate are eminently 
propitious to the growth of hemp, and from the quantity 
of acres eligible for this purpose in the one particular 
region I have described, of the vale and the lakes,, there 



208 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL *S. 

can be no hesitation in asserting that there are in this 
island 1,000,000 of acres proper for the same purpose, 
which, at one-fourth of a ton per acre, the average here 
would furnish Great Britain with 250,000 tons of hemp, 
if she required that quantity, and make her for ever 
independent of those markets which are subject to the 
control of an enemy, and to the vicissitudes and fluctua- 
tions occasioned by war. 

Led away by the consequence of this subject, I have 
omitted a few observations I made on the lakes. ' The 
water is perfectly pure and gelid, and is inhabited by a 
numerous family of gold or Chinese fish, the original 
stock of which, consisting of four, were put into the lake 
by the Dutch consul resident at Ponta del Gada. The 
reason that the gold fish only are to be found in the lake 
is, that all the lakes having been formed by volcanic 
eruptions could have no aboriginal fish, and the gold fish 
being easily imported in globular glasses caused them to 
be preferred to any other. No doubt if other fish could 
be imported with equal facility they would multiply and 
flourish in a similar manner. Indeed such is the nature 
of the water, air, and soil, that exotics of every descrip- 
tion not only multiply but improve. In the vale, and 
on the banks of the lakes in particular, the birds sing 
with uncommon powers, and the shrubs and flowers, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 209 

instead of bearing the appearance of sickly exotics, 
display their tints with a brilliancy and fragrance which 
shew them congenial to the soil. It is the same with 
living nature. The ox, the ass, and the hog, though 
derived from the miserable breed of Portugal grow here 
to a stature unknown to any other country. As do also 
poultry of every description. Even man undergoes a 
change which is hardly credible. The continental Por- 
tuguese have as many ill qualities as these their descend- 
ants have good ones. They are universally unpolished, 
brutal, and ignorant ; guilty of the most despicable 
treachery ; cruel to a degree ; not sparing even their 
own brother, if his death will turn out any thing to their 
advantage. Their bodies meagre, and badly proportioned, 
their features irregular, and their complexion tawny. 
Looking upon labour as mean and unmanly, they make 
their women and slaves perform all the necessary drudg- 
eries of life. Whereas the exotic Portuguese, the inha- 
bitants of the island, differ entirely from their ancestors 
in their persons, tempers, and principles. Their bodies 
are tall and well proportioned, their features are mild 
and regular, their complexion inclined to florid. They 
are naturally industrious, and employ themselves daily in 
the hardest labours. They are by no means unskilful in 
the practical part of agriculture, and are acquainted with 
several methods of breeding and nourishing their cattle^ 



210 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

which the continental Portuguese are entirely ignorant of. 
— I have said that every exotic improves. I must qualify 
this by a singular fact. No venomous reptile can exist in 
the island. Various experiments and attempts have been 
made to introduce them, but all in vain. The climate 
soon incapacitates them from biting, and after an appear- 
ance of suffocation they shortly shrink up and die. Or 
if they live for any time, their venom loses its malignity, 
and they become inoffensive, and may be handled with- 
out the least dread or hesitation. The horned viper 
from the Brazils, of a nature the most inveterate of all 
vipers, existed in the island about three months, during 
which time, experiments were tried for the purpose of 
ascertaining the degeneracy of his venom. In the first 
instance a chicken died from his bite in the space of ten 
minutes, but the time gradually increased to hours and 
days, till at length the bite ceased to communicate poison, 
and only inflicted a small wound. The American Consul 
also confined some toads in an inclosure in his garden 
at the Furnas, they lived but a short time, and yet s 
before their death, they became as little a nuisance as 
common frogs.— I feel I have fallen into a tedious digres- 
sion, but as it naturally arose out of the subject I was 
on, I trust that it will meet with excuse. 



LETTER XXXII 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE CLIMATE OF ST. MI- 
CHAEL'S. 

A TASK, lightly taken up, is generally as 
lightly laid aside ; or, at least, remissly performed. I 
did not attempt to open this correspondence, without 
having, a considerable time beforehand, examined the 
integrity and resolution of my own heart ; the two main 
qualifications in a work of this nature. Hence it is, that 
in the topics, which are of the greatest moment, I have 
observed a method which I had planned out to myself 
from the beginning. For this reason likewise, in treating 
of the various subjects, which have fallen under my con- 
sideration, I have endeavoured to preserve the dignity of 
an historical character : neither yielding to unmanly 
levity, on the one hand, nor to an unsociable austerity 
on the other : neither approving one object, nor con- 
demning another, any farther than I thought was justifi- 
able upon the principles of truth and virtue, and the 
plain notions of common sense. 

F F 



212 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

Such were the determinations and sentiments which 
directed my pen while I gave you an account of my 
excursions round the Island : for I should have told you 
that I "completed my tour by returning from the Vale of 
the Lakes to Ponto del Gada by the way of the coast, and 
took up my abode once again in the hospitable mansion 
of Mr. Read. 

I have hitherto declined dilating upon the climate, but 
now, with an improved knowledge, aided by the expe- 
rience of so intelligent an observer as Mr. Read, I feel 
myself competent to the undertaking. The climate is 
so remarkably fine, that those persons who have emi- 
grated from countries where subsistence can only be 
obtained by a constant stretch of their faculties, are 
astonished to find that they can maintain life here almost 
without exertion, and feel every pleasure of the senses 
lavished with a profusion of which they could form no 
idea. With the exception of the winter, which is only 
known by heavy rains which fall between December and 
February, the climate may be said to consist of but one 
season, a summer tempered by sea breezes, and refreshed 
by dews of the most nutritious and prolific quality. As 
the salubrity of the climate and the healthy and prolific 
quality of the soil may thus justly be attributed to that 
clew or dense vapour which so abundantly falls upon the 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 2l3 

Island when the sun is below the horizon, it may be 
proper to form a just understanding of the climate, and 
to enter into a short disquisition on the subject. The 
dew here is not only composed of watry particles, but 
likewise of those valuable, sulphureous, oily, and saline 
particles which abound in the volcanic regions, in the 
vapour of the caldeiras and on the surface of the lavatic 
grounds : these, by the power of the solar rays are carried 
upon the air and fill that part of it which lies nearest to 
the surface of the earth, till the solar heat begins to remit, 
and allows it to descend, and to cover, and refresh the 
face of the earth in the manner of falling showers. Those 
who do not know the nature of dew, may consider these 
observations in the light of a wild theory. But I would 
ask such, do they not know, that in gravel-pits, and in 
high, dry, healthy grounds of a large extent, there is 
collected but a small quantity of this vapour, and that 
of a watery salutary nature, whilst that which is collected 
about standing waters, fens, marshes, and fat bituminous 
grounds, is of a a quite different quality, and not only 
pernicious to vegetation, but very often destructive to 
mankind. I would ask again, do they not know that 
some dew that has been collected in a certain part of the 
earth, has afforded a liquor by distillation, which struck 
the colours of the rainbow upon glass, not to be effaced 
by friction, alkaline lixivium, or aqua-regia: it also 

f f 2 



214 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

burnt like spirits of wine ? I would also ask, do they 
know, that some distilled dew, having been digested with 
a gentle heat for eight days, and then rectified six times 
over, till it was exceedingly subtle, broke three glass vessels 
successively, though it still remained perfectly insipid ? 
The nature of dew then, it must be allowed, differs sur- 
prizingly with the different seasons of the year, the various 
succession of meteors, and with the quality of substances 
exposed to the action of the sun which produces it. 
Hence, if the bituminous swamps of the Amazons, abound- 
ing with putrified fish, and other animals, produce a dew 
infectious and destructive to life, it follows that the saline 
and pure mineral waters of this island, together with the 
mineral and metalline substances which cover its surface, 
must constitute a dew favorable to vegetation, and an 
atmosphere calculated to preserve and strengthen the 
principles of animal life. These mineral, aqueous, and 
metalline exhalations also account for the uniform warmth 
of this climate. For the atmosphere is warm in propor- 
tion to the quantity of such exhalations as these as it 
contains. The lungs being the prime agents of all the 
functions of the body, and the welfare of the lungs 
depending greatly upon the purity of the matter they 
inhale, the air, then, by which they are surrounded, must 
be of the utmost importance to health. But air, philoso- 
phically so called, cannot be impure ; of the fluid that we 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL^. 215 

breathe, only one fourth or less is air, the remaining 
three parts or more, are composed of the particles which 
float in the air : it is this compound atmosphere, there- 
fore, that is of so much importance, and its healthi- 
ness is governed by the natural circumstances which I 
have just named in my observations on the formation of 
dew . On this alone its purity depends. The atmosphere 
of this island is impregnated with sulphureous, saline, 
and metalline particles; it is consequently healthy and 
salubrious. Were it filled with particles of a contrary 
nature, particles derived from stagnated waters and 
putrescent substances, it would deposit unwholesome 
damps, and spread pernicious effluvia. In short the state 
of the atmosphere is governed by adventitious circum- 
stances, but particularly by the substances which are ex- 
posed more particularly to thesun'scontinued action. The 
bilious fever, that great calamity of America, is produced 
by the stagnated state of its water and soil, and the 
endemical or epidemic disorders of Lincolnshire and Essex 
owe their origin to the fens and marshes with which they 
abound. Now, in this island there is no one impurity 
which affects the atmosphere about it, and it possesses 
through its mineral waters and volcanic remains the best 
possible particles for the composition of an atmosphere 
proper for animal life. From these facts, if there exist 



216 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

no other of a stronger nature, let those, who have any 
influence over the lot of their fellow-creatures, remember, 
that no consideration is more worthy of their benevolence 
or of their wisdom than an improvement of the atmosphere 
of the places in which they respectively reside. Let 
them believe this physical truth : " from the puddle of 
the beggar, sickness and death arise to desolate their 
palaces." That an atmosphere is capable of improvement 
is also strongly proved by the history of Lake Avernus. 
This spot which lies near Baie, in Campania, was famous 
among the ancients for its baneful qualities. In the days 
of Strabo, black, aged groves, stretching their boughs over 
its waters, excluded every ray of wholesome light ; and 
mephitic vapours, ascending from the hot bowels of the 
earth, denied a passage to the upper atmosphere, and 
floated in poisonous mists along the surface. Here it 
was that superstition, by the hands of Cimmerian priests, 
celebrated her orgies to the gods of hell : but the 
sacrilegious axe of Agrippa brought its forests to the 
ground ; the sluggish waters were disturbed by ships ; 
and the sanctity of Avernus, and its destructive effluvia 
vanished together. The once murky Avernus is clear 
and serene ; and presents to the gay gondola an alluring 
surface, and rich verdant banks. That there are particular 
situations, nevertheless, in the natural disposition of the 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP ST. MICHAEl/s. 217 

earth, the atmosphere of which is injurious to animal 
life, is not to be denied: but these deleterious atmospheres 
are by no means irremediable. However, as there is 
nothing deleterious in the position, in the soil, or in the 
waters of this Island, so is its atmosphere the finest in 
the world, and its climate consequently the most pure 
and serene. 



LETTER XXXIII. 



EFFECTS OF THE CLIMATE OF ST. MICHAEl/s ON ITS 

INHABITANTS. 

TO complete my observations on the climate 
of these islands, I shall make a few remarks on national 
genius, and the physical effect of climate on the people 
I now record. 

Genius of any kind is not peculiar to any parallel of 
latitude ; whatever may have been the opinion of spe- 
culative writers. Not only the Antipodes but the 
Antiscii of our globe may be as dissimilar as the inha- 
bitants of the Tropics and Polar Circles. But it is yet 
unsettled, how far the minds of a people may be affected 
by climate. Some attribute all in all to it. Others 
deny that it any wise operates on the intellect. Autho- 
rities are strong on both sides ; however the truth most 
probably lies between. For, though it must be allowed 
that moral causes are of the greatest weight over the 
human intellect, yet to deny the co-operation of nature 
would be as criminal as unphilosophicah 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 219 

The Portuguese of these islands differ not more in the 
strength and colour of their bodies, than they do in the 
turn and complexion of their minds. And that the 
different forms of their minds depend on the configura- 
tion of their organs we can no more doubt, than that 
this organization is varied by the climates : as we know 
not how spirit acts upon matter, ,so neither can we tell 
how matter affects spirit. In fewer words, the dif- 
ference is not in latitude, it exists solely in a good or 
bad climate ; in a pure, or in an impure atmosphere. 
The bad atmosphere of a great portion of Portugal 
enervates the mind as well as the body ; and dissipates 
that fire of imagination necessary for invention. In 
Portugal, therefore, they are not capable of that tedious 
study and intense application, which produce the works 
of art both liberal and mechanical. It is only in 
healthy climates that we are to expect the arts and 
handicrafts in the highest perfection. From the parallel, 
then, which I have drawn between these islanders and 
the continental Portuguese, the truth of the matter 
seems to be this, genius depends on the animal spirits, 
and fine texture of the organs : and that both are influ- 
enced by soil, food, air, and heat, is most certain. I 
know nothing more absurd than to estimate the variation 
of genius by the degrees on the meridian. For climate 
itself does not depend on mere distance from the line : 

G G 



220 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

the nature of the soil, the minerals and metals it is 
lined with, the contiguity to lakes and seas, the inter- 
position of woods and mountains, make strange and 
considerable alterations. I have shewn what the draining 
of marshes did in Italy and England ; and the cutting 
down of wood in America. So that latitude is but one 
of those many ratios which compose the momentum of 
climate. The merit of the climate of the Azores, there- 
fore, resides in the purity of its atmosphere, and that 
purity is to be attributed, as I have just observed, to 
the nature of the soil, to the minerals and metals with 
which it abounds, to the living lakes with which it is 
adorned, and to the sea which washes its shores. — And 
what are the physical effects of so benign a climate ? 
The effects are manifest in the personal superiority of 
the people, and in the astonishing improved condition 
of every animal that has at any time been introduced. 
Instead of degenerating in size and temper, the breed of 
every imported beast improves to an extraordinary 
degree both in spirit and bulk. Such is the physical 
effect of this happy climate. Its effect on the genius 
is not so easy to determine. Genius is of such a subtle 
and fugitive nature, that it is difficult, if not impossible 
to fix it ; we can arrange it. under no general law : there 
is no principle we can assume that will not fail us. If 
we assign warmth of climate, we shall soon find it neces- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 221 

cessary to change our minds, if it is considered that the 
greatest geniuses have been born under the most lowering 
skies. I would assign it to purity of climate, and on 
the principle that it strengthens the mind as well as the 
body, and serves to create that fire of imagination which 
is necessary for invention, and which produces the works 
of art, of genius, and of taste. 

In this licdit the inhabitants of these islands ought to 
be celebrated for inventive capacity and intellectual 
endowments. For, what people of the earth are blest, 
with such a climate as these ? I before said that mere 
physical causes are not sufficient, and that moral causes 
have great weight upon the intellects of man. It was 
not mere physical causes that wrought such contrary 
effects upon the adjoining countries of Attica and Bceotia, 
as to render the Thebans gross, heavy, and stupid, but 
the Athenians, quick, lively, and apprehensive. Espe- 
cially when it is considered that Bceotia was one of the 
best parts, and Attica the very worst of all Greece. 
Besides, Bceotia was originally the most noted part of 
Greece for genius, it was therefore made the seat of 
Apollo and the Muses. Cadmus was the inventor of 
letters, and if we are forced to doubt the country of 
Homer, yet we are certain that it was Bceotia gave 
birth to Pindar ; not to mention Plutarch and others 

g g 2 



222 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

inferior to him. Nor was it the influence of air or 
climate, that made that striking contrast between the 
Attick and Laconic genius. No, it was the meek and 
rigid spirits of Solon and Lycurgus, that infused into 
one of these republics the love of simplicity, war, and 
agriculture ; but into the other politeness, learning, and 
the arts. It is well known that the Lydians were the most 
warlike race in Asia, till they were subdued by Cyrus, 
It was not, therefore, the change of climate, that ren- 
dered them effeminate and pusillanimous. No, it was 
their conqueror who corrupted their manners, in order 
to rivet their chains ! [n short, such is the force of 
moral agency on the mind, that it has hindered the 
inhabitants of these islands, notwithstanding the un- 
questionable purity and benignity of their climate from 
rising out of the oblivious pool of a rude and primitive 
ignorance. Governed by a political as well as a reli- 
gious intolerance, they are compelled to be content with 
being the abject and contented subjects of mockery or 
mal-treatment, as it suits the humour of the different 
governors who are placed over them. But if the same 
people had, in such a climate, the liberty and the means 
of developing their natural capacities and their powers ; 
if they had a constitution free, a religion pure, and a 
prerogative limited ; if they had the privilege of a 
people allowed all the aliment proper for personal or 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 223 

professional ambition, and accorded the fair play which 
nature, humanity, and just policy, should allow them, 
then would genius arrive amongst them, and cast off 
that slough of barbarism which the bigoted church and 
the tyrannic government prefer to a smooth, fair, and 
florid civilization. I have said before, and, as it relates 
to the happiness of mankind in general, it cannot be 
too frequently repeated, however fine the climate of a 
country may be, it is contrary to the nature of things 
and to human nature, that either genius or speculation 
can ever fix their choice upon a land where there is no 
religious tolerance — no political liberty, and, of con- 
sequence, no personal security ; where virtue, talent, 
and property, are annually expatriated ; where all the 
regular distinctions of rank in society are resolved into 
priesthood and military ; and where the compelling 
power draws every thing of use or ornament, in the 
country, to the central point of a distant empire. 

After this general description, and these general ob- 
servations, it may be necessary to investigate into the 
leading manners and principles of these islands. To 
delineate these manners and principles without aggra- 
vation or weakness, to unravel their effects on the public 
welfare, and to trace them to their real though distant 
sources, is indeed a task of equal difficulty and import- 



224 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

ance. However, in doing this, he will be much mis- 
taken, who expects to find in me a vein of undistinguish- 
ing and licentious satire. To rail at a country at large, 
can serve no good purpose, and generally arises from a 
want of knowledge or a want of honesty. There never 
was a country that had not virtues and vices peculiar 
to itself : and in some respects, perhaps, there is no 
time nor country' delivered down to us in story, in 
which a wise man would so much wish to have lived, 
as in the Azores, which I now describe. 



/ 



» 

LETTER XXXIV. 

manners and principles of the inhabitants of 

st. Michael's. 

HITHERTO I have done little more than 
delineate the general and physical features of this island : 
I must now assume a severer tone, and delineate the 
ruling manners and principles of its inhabitants. 

Most writers who have attempted to prove the efficacy 
of principle, have supposed it to be the great and uni- 
versal fountain of manners : those who have espoused 
the opposite system, observing the theory to be at 
variance with fact, have rashly concluded that principle 
is void of all real influence. The truth seems to be 
between these two contrary opinions. Because, in 
general, principles cannot be the fountain of manners, in 
as much as manners, in general, precede principles : that 
is, in our progress from infancy, habits of acting are 
prior to habits of thinking. But here it is otherwise ; 
certain principles are here early and deeply ingrafted in 
the mind, which grow up with, and direct the manners of 



£26 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST MICHAELS. 

the people. The principles, then, here to be estimated, 
are such only as tend to counterwork the selfish pas- 
sions. These are, the principle of religion, the principle 
of honor, and the principle of public spirit. The first of 
these, has the Deity for its object ; the second, the 
applause of men ; the third, the approbation of one's 
own heart. Let us examine the present influence of 
these several principles, and then we can form a correct 
opinion of the manners of the Azores. 

The bad effects of the religion of this people, may be 
reduced under three general heads : a consummate igno- 
rance ; a total negligence of virtue ; and an unsociable 
pride and arrogance. The soul of a catholic being 
directed entirely by his priest, whom he mistakes for a 
heavenly minister, has no thirst for instruction, no feeling 
of the sentiment of humanity, no leisure to concern itself 
in the affairs of men. In this manner the catholic 
imagines he amply atones for his ignorance and con- 
tempt of mankind, by an affected, insincere, humility 
towards his confessor, and towards God. In order to 
shew his spiritual humility, he gives up his understanding 
at once, and divests himself of every faculty, which the 
author of all beings did actually give him to be improved, 
and not to be destroyed. If he had the reflection to 
know his own heart, he would discern this farce of hum- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 227 

bling himself so exceedingly to be the height of spiritual 
pride : for, he presumes all the while, that, having gained 
the priest, he has gained God Almighty to himself, and 
that the extravagance of the most vain wish shall be 
gratified. 

This being the state of religious principle, let us now 
examine how it fares with the principle of honor. By this 
I mean the desire of fame, or the applause of men, directed 
to the end of public happiness. Now this great ambition, 
which, in other times and nations has wrought such 
wonderful effects, is not to be found amongst these 
islands. It is the pride of religion, the pride of fortune, 
the pride of family, that have assumed their empire over 
the Azores, and levelled ambition with the dirt. The 
honest pride of virtue is no more ; or, where it happens 
to exist, is overwhelmed by religious vanities. The 
principle of honor is either lost, or totally corrupted. 
There is no generous thirst of praise left in the people. 
Their ambitions are trifling and unmanly as the religion 
which has undermined it. Religious zeal and worldly 
fortune are the sole fountains from which they desire to 
draw respect to themselves, or applause from others : 
they aspire to folly, and are proud of meanness : thus 
the principle of honor is perverted, and dwindled into 
unmanly vanity. 

H H 



i 



228 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

Can it be imagined that, amidst this general defect of 
religion and honor, the great comprehensive principle of 
public spirit, can gain a place in their breasts ? That 
mighty principle, so often feigned, so seldom possessed ; 
which requires the united force of upright manners, 
generous religion, and unfeigned honor, to support it. 
What strength of thought or conscious merit can there 
be in bigotted minds, surficient to elevate them to this 
principle, whose object is, the general happiness of a 
people ? To speak, therefore, without flattery, this 
principle is, perhaps, less felt among them than even 
those of religion and true honor. So infatuated are they 
in their contempt of this powerful principle, that they 
are ignorant of the very name of country, and know no 
dominion beyond the sphere of their priests. So little 
are they accustomed to go, or even to think, beyond the 
beaten track of private interest, in all things that regard 
their country, that he who merely does his duty, in any 
conspicuous station, is looked on as a prodigy of public 
virtue. 

Domestic affections are also extinguished. ^ There are 
no kind fathers ; the convents are filled with daughters 
who should have been the ornament of their fathers' 
house. There are no kind husbands ; the wives are 
treated as slaves, and seldom dine at their masters' board. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP ST. MICHAEl/s. 229 

There are no affectionate children ; the parents exclude 
the children from their presence, and turn them over to 
the control of churchmen and monks. It is not affirmed 
or implied, in this general review, that every individual 
has assumed the garb and character I here describe. As 
in liberal countries some will be bigotted ; so, in bigotted 
places, the liberal character will sometimes be found. 
As in times of principle, some will be void of principle ; 
so, in times when principle is derided, in some superior 
minds principle will be found. But from the general 
combination of manners and principles, in every period 
of time, will always result one ruling and predominant 
character ; as from a confused multitude of different 
voices, results one general murmur, and strikes the distant 
ear ; or from a field covered with flocks, herds, or armies, 
though various in themselves, results one general and 
permanent colour, and strikes the distant eye. 

But is it not obvious how weak must be the natural 
capacity of that people, whose leading members should, 
in general, be formed on such a model as I have 
described ? When instead of a general application to 
books, instead of investigating the great principles of 
legislation, the genius of their national constitution, or its 
relations and dependencies on that of others, the great 
examples and truths of history, the maxims of generous 

h h 2 



230 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

and upright policy, and the severer truths of philosophy ; 
when instead of these they should seldom rise in political 
study higher than the knowledge of the contributions 
proper to pay to their prince ; instead of history, be only 
read in the accounts of Anthonio and a whole rabble of 
saints ; instead of legislation to be read only in the papal 
code ; instead of philosophy, to be read only in an 
intolerant religion ; instead of manly and upright man- 
ners, to be read only in bigotry, superstition, and en- 
thusiasm. When this is the ruling system, what must 
be expected from such established ignorance, but errors 
in the first concoction. It is not to be understood, 
notwithstanding, that the manners and principles of the 
common people find a place in this account. For though 
the sum total of a nation's happiness must arise, and be 
estimated from the manners and principles of the whole ; 
yet the manners and principles of those who lead, not of 
those who are led ; of those who govern, not of those 
who are governed ; of those, in short, who make laws, 
or execute them, will ever determine the strength or 
weakness, and, therefore, the continuance or dissolution 
of a state. For the blind force or weight of an ungo- 
verned multitude, can have no steady or rational effect, 
unless some leading mind rouse it into action, and point it 
to its proper end : without this, it is either a brute, and 
random bolt, or a lifeless ball sleeping in a cannon : it 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 231 

depends on some superior intelligence, to give it both 
impulse and direction, 

Indeed, were these islanders, en masse, remarkably 
corrupt, they might probably make a part of this esti- 
mate : but in most of those important circumstances 
to which this estimate refers, the islanders in general 
are much more irreproachable than their superiors in 
station ; especially if we except the lower ranks of those 
who live in the towns. I thought it, therefore, unne- 
cessary to mark the character of their principles or 
manners, unless where they appeared evidently poisoned 
by the example, or other influence, of the higher ranks 
in life. And yet, I might have described them in two 
words : they are an ignorant yet inoffensive people : 
a people who only want some leading minds to rouse 
them into action, and point them to their proper end : 
or, rather, as I have just said, like a lifeless ball sleeping 
in the cannon, they only want some superior intelligences 
to give them both impulse and direction. 

I write on the subject of manners and principles in 
general terms, my object being to describe a people, not 
to satirize individuals ; to mark the general colour and 
complexion, not to aggravate the tints of particular per- 
sons, by throwing their respective features into one dark 
shade of merited horror. 



LETTER XXXV 



VISIT TO THE CONVENT OF ESPERANZA. 

I fear it is not enough to have shewn the 
general defect of principle and ruling manners : to obtain 
a full view of the subject, it is a necessary though a 
disagreeable task, to trace some instances of their effects 
upon individual conduct. 

An instance of this kind, proper for example, occurred 
to me the other day on a visit which I made on my 
return from the excursion I made round the Island. 
The visit which I made was to the convent of Esperanza : 
I was accompanied by a friend from Lisbon, and as we 
went for the express purpose of seeing two sisters to 
whom I had formerly been introduced, but who were 
unacquainted with my friend, I had to go through the 
formality of obtaining an audience by knocking at a 
little box which turns on a pivot at one of the doors, and 
which is attended by the nun who may happen to be at 
it in her turn of duty. I asked for my two friends by 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 233 

name, and begged my respects to the lady abbess, with 
a request for permission to see my friends, if it did not 
intrude on any particular duties then passing in the 
convent. The nun returned with a smile of approbation, 
and, directing us to a particular porch afforded us an 
opportunity of conversing with the two lovely sisters ; 
but, through an iron grate, for that is the utmost limit 
of their indulgence, and the greatest boundary of their 
social happiness. 

The little transport of pleasure which they had 
expressed as soon as they beheld me, after I had 
been so long absent from Ponto del Gada, did not exist 
any length of time : a something like a foul and ugly 
fiend recollection conjured up in their brain, to rip open 
their sorrows afresh, and to blast, with its pestiferous 
breath, all the fair flowers of visionary happiness which 
sanguine youth had presented to them previously to their 
taking the veil, and assuming a life of unmingled despair 
and bitterness. Ever and anon as they cast their eye on 
me, on me to whom they had often related all their 
sorrows, I could delineate a melancholy alteration in 
their appearance. Their form worn thin, and their 
countenance overspread with a paleness which rivalled 
death ; hungry corroding despair had banquetted on the 
roses that bloomed on their soft cheeks, and left behind 



234 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 

the traces its marking hand had imprinted ; the swoln 
eye, surcharged with tears, that seemed prepared to burst 
forth, and course their ready way down the cheek ; the 
half-stifled sob, and the quick heaves of the bosom, all 
gave tokens of minds woe-fraught and wounded by 
calamity ; whilst the pent up turbulence of their grief 
sought to vent itself in exclamations, and, with a wish to 
conceal it from observation, contended for the mastery. 
They endeavoured, however, to regain that outward form 
of composure which the sight of a stranger with me, and 
the quick sense they knew I entertained of their 
condition, had moved them from, teaching their counte- 
nance to wear the semblance of a calm serenity they 
were far from feeling. They strove to still the agitation 
of their grief-charged soul ; and in some sort succeeded. 
They looked the picture of depressive melancholy, calm 
and patiently resigned to meet its fate. They sat down 
close by the grate ; the lustre of their fine eyes dimmed, 
and pointed downward in fearful dignity, or momentarily 
raised to cast a mournful look, and then again turned to 
their former station with a deep-fetched sigh. This 
excess of sensibility at this moment was owing to a 
circumstance which I will omit mentioning till I make 
you acquainted with the whole of the story of these 
interesting women. And as this story takes its colouring 
from the ruling manners and principles of the island., 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 235 

its introduction here cannot be called a misplaced 
digression. 

These two sisters are the daughters of one of the 
leading men of this place : of a man who was left a 
widower in an early stage of life, and who continued 
unmarried merely for their sakes, and for the sake of a 
son of whom he was also passionately fond. Following, 
however, the custom of the Portuguese, he placed his 
two daughters in the quality of novitiates in a convent, 
and put the conduct of his son's education into the hands 
of an indolent, ignorant, and bigotted priest. The 
daughters answered to his cares by the quickest improve- 
ments of the mind ; and the lustre of their beauty was 
indescribable. Unhappily, the partiality of their doating 
parent, for he often had them to his home, and daily 
visited them, and the universal adoration paid to their 
persons by the numerous visitors to the Esperanza, 
intoxicated the minds of the young and thoughtless 
novitiates, and made them refuse, with unbecoming 
disdain, many honorable offers of marriage, made, as is 
the custom, to the father, during the period of their 
novitiate. Yet the fair sisters had susceptible hearts, 
and had been much affected by the silent and mysterious 
assiduities of two strangers who constantly attended them 
at the grate, and who sought all opportunities of antici- 

i i 



236 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

pating their every thought, and preventing every wish. 
Gratitude inclined their heart to love such strangers, and 
they involuntarily confessed the purity of their passion to 
those to whom they owed so many attentions and favors. 
The strangers breathed a still more ardent expression of 
passion, and swore to engagements of perpetual constancy, 
fidelity, and secrecy — For some time every scene was a 
scene of happiness ; and finally a day was fixed when the 
vigilance of the mother abbess was to be eluded, and 
when the favored lovers were to be at the feet of their 
mistresses, and exult in their success. The very place 
was appointed, and a priest provided to perform those 
rites which could alone overcome the fears and the 
scruples of these lovely maids. 

The plan well arranged, and prosperously executed, 
the two sisters left the convent in disguise, and under the 
conduct of the faithful padre, the friend of their friends, 
they approached the rural altar where they were to be 
united by the most sacred ties to the most amiable of 
men. But those amiable lovers had not arrived. What 
a cruel incident ! Surely they will not delay a moment 
to fly on the wings of love to such adorable mistresses. 
Surely they must be impatient to conclude the ceremony 
that is to confirm the happiness of their life ; and that 
life itself is attached to ties that never can be too closely 
formed . 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/3. 237 

Women, when in love, are perhaps more passionately, 
more delicately sensible to its soft influence than men. 
The sweet sisters could alledge no reason for the absence 
of the two friends. What reasons, indeed, could be urged 
to hearts so replete with the tender passion ? They gave 
way to complaints, and to all the alarms that fancy could 
suggest. They saw they were alive only to the pain of 
living torn from the objects that were far dearer to them 
than themselves. And these were their feelings — and 
this the conduct of genuine love. 

But it was impossible to proceed with the ceremony. 
The lovers, however, could not be long absent : their 
susceptible hearts would consult the little decorum of 
the sex, and shew the impropriety of not being prompt 
and impatient. In minds uncorrupted by refinement, 
love assumes the character, the noble pride of virtue ; 
and it feels a degree of self-complacency, it glories in its 
transports. The two sisters hesitated not to lament 
openly a delay, which was, however, to be of such short 
duration. But the hours of absence are years— are ages 
of torture to those who are truly in love. In the mean 
time the attendant priest endeavoured to soothe, to 
relieve them from this cruel state of agitation and terror. 
He explained the transports of their lovers when they 
gained his consent to this union, and from moment to 

i i 2 



238 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

moment he fixed the time of their arrival and the 
commencement of their felicity. 

It may be supposed that the two sisters, in proportion 
to the pleasure they derived from these assurances of the 
reverend father, anticipated the happy instant, and that 
their eyes were perpetually directed to the road through 
which their beloved was to proceed. At the least noise, 
' it is them ! it is them !' They had wings ; they flew ; 
with impatient eyes they looked around. c Where are 
they ? Holy father where are they ? Where ! Where ! 
are they ?' An old servant at length arrives, with a deep 
sorrow visible in his face, f Senoras, it is my duty to 5 
— - ' What ! are they not come, Senor ? What have they 
changed their minds ? Do they cease to love us ? Do 
they refuse ? Are they afraid of our father's power ?" 
' Oh ! senoras, arm yourselves with courage, your lovers 
are not capable of such dishonorable conduct, but your 
father's jealousy has been excited, and his power is not 
now to be feared, it is already employed. He discovered 
the intentions of my young masters, and to frustrate 
them he has obtained an order from the governor to seize 
their persons, put them on board ship, and exile them 
for ever from the Azores.' At these words the old man 
burst into tears. The two sisters remained speechless 
and immoveable, and the faithful padre appeared like 
one stunned with thunder or stupified by blows, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 239 

In this dreadful state, without a single remedy for such 
affliction, or a means of mitigating such hopeless woe, 
the father arrived. His countenance wore ' he symptoms 
of a ferocious displeasure, and he ordered the poor 
victims into his carriage with a malicious frown. 

I really cannot proceed with this story at the present. 
I shall resume it shortly, and I shall omit no circum- 
stance of it which marks the manners and principles of 
the times. 



LETTER XXXVI. 



VISIT TO THE CONVENT OF ESPERANZA CONTINUED. 

IT requires but a small portion of sagacity 
to comprehend, that the father of the two amiable 
sufferers, who were the subject of my last letter, lost 
not a moment in restoring them to the convent of 
Esperanza, and this, with the fixed determination of 
compelling them to take the veil, notwithstanding the 
repugnance he knew them always manifest to this act of 
delusive faith whenever they saw any of their unfortunate 
sisters become its victim. 

With an injunction on the abbess to prepare his 
daughters for the fatal ceremony which was to separate 
them from the world for ever, the father left them : left 
them with the measure of their woes full and running 
over. The sweet comforter of grief-wounded minds, 
angel-formed hope, too, had spread its airy pinions, and 
left them forlorn wretches, dead to all the world, with- 
out any prospect whispering consolation to the agitated 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 241 

brain : distracted with many troubles, and seeing no 
conclusion to their woes, save in death's cold arms : 
no friendly ray of far distant happiness to break in upon 
their gloomy reflections ; but all was dreary and com- 
fortless. Their father inexorable: their lovers exiled. 
Cut off, like an offending part, from all they loved in 
the world, and doomed to pass their life in sorrow, and 
in a convent from which their soul shrunk with horror, 
as from the dwelling of sin and tyranny. 

In bosoms so gentle, however, the father calculated 
upon finding a shaken fortitude ; but he was mistaken : 
for they answered all his solicitations to take the veil 
with prayers, with intreaties for their return to liberty, 
to their home, and to a father's and a brother's society. 
When the father finding the vanity of persuasion, he 
had recourse to threats, and vowed that their lives 
would be endangered by their hesitating at the awful 
moment, when they were to pass an irrevocable sentence 
on themselves, and on their lovers for ever ! The awful 
moment at length arrived. With eyes downcast, and 
blooming cheeks blushing like the lovely rose, they 
approached the altar. The audience watched, enamoured 
over them, beheld their fascinating features glow with 
ineffable sweetness, saw their enchanting bosoms heave, 
and heard them murmur out protestations of eternal 



242 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

love, of unshaken and inviolable fidelity to the lovers 
from whom they were torn, and of aversion to the veil 
which might be forced upon them, but which they would 
never accept. 

Vows so unexpected as these, vows of eternal love to 
man instead of an entire resignation to God, were re- 
ceived by the spectators with astonishment, and answered 
in an incoherent strain of rapture and abhorrence. 
Would that this rapture had raised in the heart of those 
advocates the sentiments I now feel. Would that it had 
urged them to take advantage of that blessed moment, 
and to have .rescued the beauteous sufferers from the 
altar on which they were about to be sacrificed. But 
no effort was made in their behalf. And the noble 
spirit which animated them in the first instance, being 
nearly exhausted in their gentle bosoms, the father's 
party gained the preponderance, and the ceremony was 
performed amidst frantic shrieks, and violent vocifera- 
tions. At the conclusion of this hellish scene, the 
poor victims remained sunk in woe unutterable, nor 
was it for some time that they could be made sensible to 
all that had passed. 

To account for the monstrous part which the father 
acted in this tragical affair, it is necessary to acquaint 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP ST. MICHAEl/s. 243 

you, that he was hurried on by more than one passion 
before he arrived at such a height of complicated guilt. 
Besides a jealousy for the honour of his house, he was 
under the domination of the ruling manners and prin- 
ciples of his country ; he was under the arbitrary go- 
vernment of avarice and ambition. An avarice which 
pointed out the profit of disposing of his daughters 
without a dowry, and an ambition which promised 
every dignity and honour, if the dowry, so saved, were 
to be lavished on the care and establishment of his only 
son. It was thus that avarice and ambition operated on 
the degraded mind, and blunted feelings of the father. 
It was thus that he was tempted to turn a deaf ear to 
the pleadings of nature, and the prayers of these tender 
daughters of misfortune, in order that his son might live 
in gilded luxury, and transmit his name and his wealth 
to an astonished and applausive posterity. Under such 
impressions it may well be presumed, that every means 
were employed for realizing those golden views, and for 
making this much adored son a perfect prodigy. He 
was sent to Lisbon, and from thence to Madrid ; where 
he was enabled to frequent the halls of science and lite- 
rature, and the circles of fashion and opulence, and to 
acquire all those distinctions which so essentially con- 
tribute to the eclat of life, and to the fame of one 

K K 



244 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

intended to burst upon the world as a genius of the first 
water. 

In the mean time the two sisters were wasting their 
days in tender and agonizing solicitude. But the lovers, 
of whom nothing has been said for a length of time, 
were not consuming their time in effeminate or ungrateful 
inactivity. No, they were zealously employed in expe- 
dients to repel the stroke of the father, and these expe- 
dients were such as youth and innocence might witness 
the performance of unblushing and uncontaminated. 
Having procured evidence from their English friends 
in this place, that the two sisters were dragged to the 
altar, and compelled to take the veil through a con- 
spiracy entered into between the abbess and the father, 
they repaired to Lisbon, and there prevailed on the 
English minister to lay the whole heart-rending scene 
before the Prince Regent of Portugal. The impassioned 
eye of the prince soon poured the beams of indignation 
and just resentment and contempt upon the conduct of 
the authors of the sisters' calamities. An enquiry was 
instituted by his instructions, and an old law, forbidding 
violence of any description to be used in the ceremony 
of taking the veil, was called into action, revised, and 
promulgated, through all the Portuguese provinces- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 245 

Nevertheless, before the enquiry was made at the con- 
vent of the Esperanza by the prince's commissioners, 
he and his court were removed to the Brazils, and the 
suffering sisters lost by this unexpected event all the 
advantages which they otherwise would have reaped 
from his acknowledged justice, clemency, and benevo- 
lence. During this period it was, that I became intimate 
with these lovely women. And the expression of plea- 
sure they manifested at seeing me on this present visit, 
is to be attributed to the part I took to effectuate their 
happiness and freedom. I also obtained, through the 
means of my friend, Mr. Read, an introduction to the 
father. I did this on the principle, that, although it is 
not in our power to rectify what is notoriously amiss in 
the make and constitution of our bodies ; still the affec- 
tions of the mind are very much at our own disposal ; 
and may be brought under the guidance of reason : so 
that a disposition, not so happily constituted by nature, 
may be disciplined into regularity, for there is a cure in 
philosophy for most disorders in the soul. And, on 
the contrary, the best constituted mind, may, through 
neglect or by indulging a favorite passion become mon- 
strous, by degrees. 

Persons who are conversant in books of travels, and 
those whose curiosity or affairs have carried them into 

K K 2 



246 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

remote countries, may observe, with me, that human 
passions play with greater vehemence, in general, 
amongst an untutored people, than amongst the inha- 
bitants of more civilized nations : which shews the force 
of discipline. Where nature remains without culture, 
she grows wild and luxuriant ; whereas, in the regions 
where knowledge flourishes, she is modelled and em- 
bellished by the care of philosophers ; who may be 
termed the guardians of the soul. Nevertheless, as 
amongst the unlettered, the more enormous vices of 
life always shoot up in full vigour, so likewise sometimes 
a manly virtue rises, even to extravagance, in an uncul- 
tivated heart ; a virtue, however, rather astonishing, 
than useful to society. These reflections you must 
permit to he excusable when I inform you they sprang 
from my acquaintance with the father of my two charm- 
ing nuns. I had not long to converse with him before 
I discovered a faint tendency in his heart towards libe- 
rality. This encouraged me to proceed, and, after 
gaining his confidence, by not appearing to lay any 
restraint upon his affections, or presuming to dictate 
which was most commendable, his love for his son, or 
his aversion to his daughters, I brought his avarice and 
his ambition to yield to his judgment and to his heart, 
and I was often made happy to hear him confess, with 
the broken spirit of a contrite father, who had blasted 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 247 

the felicity of his children's days, that, by a contrary 
management, he might have preserved his own peace of 
mind, and made his daughters prove the ornament, and 
the comfort of his life. I was the more proud to hear 
such declarations, because they convinced me of what I 
long suspected, that our minds are furnished with a 
certain set of affections, which are not only the tokens 
of our humanity, but likewise requisite to the perfection 
of our nature: and whoever attentively considers man- 
kind in general, will find the same train of desires and 
affections in the heart of one man, as there is in the 
heart of another. But I must leave you to moralize 
these reflections. In my next I shall hasten to finish 
this tedious story. 



LETTER XXXVII. 



STORY OF THE NUNS OF ESPERANZ A CONTINUED. 

WHILE I was employed in gaining the 
confidence of the father of my two friends, and in seizing 
every precious occasion of rectifying his judgment, and 
directing his affections to those objects which were so 
dear to my heart, I was happy to find, that he had 
another spring of action, besides that of nature and 
conviction, and from which I derived the most powerful 
aid. His son had been guilty of uncommon irregularities^ 
had overdrawn his credit several times, and was often 
hurried into the commission of the most exorbitant vices. 
But these a fond parent looked by, and for a length of 
time love triumphed over reason and resentment. But 
this time had its termination. At the period 1 have 
spoken of my connection with the father, this son had 
become infamous for all manner of vices. He went into 
the army and was turned out for a coward. After a 
hundred tricks at the gaming tables, he got chastised 
for a cheat. He was twice condemned for rapes, and 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 249 

pardoned. And to avoid imprisonment for some other 
offence he returned to the Azores, where he framed a 
plot for the assassination of his father, in order to have 
the premature disposition of his possessions. This 
atrocious plot discovered, he fled back to Portugal, 
where he leads an unmingled life of abandoned profligacy, 
still endeavouring to extort money from his father by 
denouncing vengeance of the deepest dye should he be 
refused. I know the son well. He is a wretch who, 
with an indefatigable constancy and inimitable uniformity 
of life, persists, in spite of law and infirmities, in the 
practice of every human vice, excepting that of hypo- 
crisy : his matchless impudence exempting him from 
that. Nor is he more singular in the undeviating pravity 
of his manners, than successful in sustaining life. For, 
without trade or profession, without trust of public 
money, he lives at the most exorbitant rate. He is, 
perhaps, the only person of his time, who can cheat 
without the mask of honesty ; retain his primaeval mean- 
ness when possessed of nearly all his father's revenues ; 
and, though daily deserving the gibbet for what he did, 
is at length exiled for what he could not do. Oh, indig- 
nant reader ! think not his life useless to mankind ; 
Providence connives at the execrable designs, to give to 
after ages a conspicuous proof and example of how small 
estimation are exorbitant wealth and powerful friends, in 



250 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP ST. MICHAEL'S. 

the sight of God, by his bestowing them on the most 
worthless of all mankind. 

There are few traverses in life which a prudent man 
may not turn to his advantage. This conduct of the son 
inspired the father with a manly tenderness, natural to 
an honest mind, towards his daughters, and brought him 
to the resolution of visiting them at the convent, and of 
taking such steps as would effectually restore them to 
freedom, and unite them to the amiable objects of their 
desires. With all the ardour, as I have just observed, 
common to an untutored mind, he new to the convent of 
Esperanza, but, like any ordinary stranger, he was stopt 
at the grate, and suffered only to converse with his 
daughters under the restrictions imposed on every person 
else. Notwitstanding this painful state of restraint, the 
amiable captives soon discovered the affecting and bene- 
volent influences which he was under ; influences which 
naturally produced the much desired effects of returning 
love, and mutual forgiveness and endearment. But I 
need not acquaint one so well skilled in the workings of 
the soul as you, what passed on this occasion. Besides, 
the violent emotions of the soul are so very transient, 
that it is difficult to catch distinct ideas of them from 
the life. A spectator may fix a passion in the face, or 
he may study the workings of it in the features at his 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 251 

leisure, but when he attempts to describe those just and 
lively sentiments he expressed in the original, his imagi- 
nation fails, and he finds there is as much difference 
between words and colours, as there is between objects 
that have no manner of relation to each other. I there- 
fore hasten to the sequel. — The father visited the daugh- 
ters every day : obtained of the governor a revocation of 
the order of exile against the youths with whom he had 
lately been at enmity, and made, and procured affidavits 
to prove that he had caused and compelled his daughters 
to assume the veil by tyranny and force. By a tyranny 
unmeasured, open, and avowed ; by a force which la- 
boured till it produced this dreadful alternative " that 
f the obstinate girls should meet death, if they did not 
seek for the preservation of life within the walls of Espe- 
ranza." 

Affidavits to this effect were carefully transmitted to 
the Prince Regent at the Brazils, accompanied with a 
petition of the father for an order of council, directed to 
the Abbess of Esperanza, to liberate the two nuns on 
whom the veil was imposed through the means of so 
much violence, fraud, and corruption. No answer has, 
however, been yet returned, and as the Queen's party in 
the Brazils have ever been opposed to liberations of this 
nature, and as that party will, no doubt ; prevail on the 

L L 



^ 



252 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

Prince Regent to contrast the present affidavits and 
petition, with the father's former proceedings when he 
opposed the happiness and freedom of his children, there 
can be no very sanguine hopes entertained of his success 
on the present occasion, or that his prayers for his 
devoted offspring will be in any manner attended to or 
regarded. 

This melancholy conviction was in full operation on 
the minds of the two sisters on the day I called upon 
them with my friend. They also feared, not having 
heard from their lovers for a length of time, that the 
warm glow of love and gratitude was chilled in their 
bosoms for ever 1 You may well conceive that my 
friend and I employed our time in endeavours to remove 
convictions which were so adverse to their happiness ; 
we pointed out new expedients for the reduction of all 
embarrassing obstacles ; and we so far succeeded as to 
light up that transient kind of hope which enthusiasm is 
known to produce, but which reflection and reason have 
always the power to extinguish. Taking advantage of this 
happy moment of delusive lustre, we bade the tender 
sisters farewell ; first promising them, wheresoever we 
should go, to make inquiries after their unfortunate 
lovers, and to hold them, ourselves, in perpetual remem- 
brance. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 253 

Such is the history of the two sisters. And nearly 
similar is the history of several hundred sisters of misfor- 
tune who have been compelled to embrace a delusive 
path, and to take the veil that their brothers may live in 
luxury, or that their fathers may squander their thousands 
upon priests and prostitutes. There is no idea more 
erroneous than the generally received one, that the final 
seclusion of the novitiates is a voluntary act or innate 
wish. Deformity and disappointment ; remorse and 
contrition ; folly and madness ; superstition and enthu- 
siasm, and disgrace and calamity, may urge their victims 
to take the veil, but I never yet conversed with a nun 
possessed of beauty, modesty, sweetness, and innocence, 
and who had sentiment sufficient to know her own heart, 
whose looks did not inform me that she considered a 
convent merely as the silent, solitary retreat of sorrow 
and despair, or the grave of love, beauty and enjoyment. 
When will monuments of human ignorance be levelled 
with the dust ? There are no less than four principal ones 
in this town ; namely, St. Andrew, St. John, Esperanza, 
and Conception. And each has some peculiar distinctive 
and popular attraction. In Conception, there are seven 
sisters all extremely interesting, and endowed with the 
strongest claims on protection and love. Esperanza, 
possesses the " two sisters," whose history I have related, 
and whose fate and misfortunes are the topic of general 

l l 2 



254 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

conversation throughout the Island. St. John, boasts of 
Senhora, Theresa, Jacinta, Amelia, said to be the most 
accomplished woman of the age. She is the leader of the 
band of St. John. She has a fine figure, lively air, an 
easy and graceful deportment, an affable disposition, 
ready wit, and a mind improved by the advantages of the 
best education. And St. Andrew has celebrity from 
being the abode of the very distinguished woman said to 
be royally related, and who wrote the following letter to 
her niece and rival, from Lisbon, previously to her re- 
tiring to St. Andrew's convent. " My dear niece, — Be 
not surprized at the subject of this letter. To congratu- 
late you, in the most tender manner, upon your ap- 
proaching* nuptials with that amiable youth was the 
original design of this epistle ; but I found, whilst my 
heart dictated felicitation to you, to me it intimated the 
most pungent sorrow. 

" When I reflect on the many happy years that await 
you, united in those indissoluble bonds of felicity, with 
a youth whose transcendent virtues, and personal ac- 
complishments, place him in the most exalted point of 
view, and render him at once the admiration of the women 
and the envy of the men, and then compare the reverse 
of my fortune, doomed to eternal celibacy, though my 
heart has long made its choice, and fixed its immutable 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 255 

attention on him who is truly worthy of it: — what a cruel 
reflection ! what a dreadful perspective ! deprived even 
of hope, or the probability of ever stifling those sentiments 
which would render hope a blessing. 

" How very unfortunate is my lot ! I might have been 
happy, too happy, had I not loved this youth who has 
now declared a passion for you. This circumstance has 
debarred me his sight ; it forbids me ever more to think 
of him. Alas ! why were weak mortals born with passions, 
if they are not to be gratified ? Why, from the weakest 
of the human species, is the most heroic fortitude to be 
expected ? 

<f But wherefore should I lament ? there is a road still 
left me : the cloister alone can afford relief. Thither will 
I fly ; there shall my future days be spent in praying for 
your welfare ; and in religious contemplation, forgetting 
I am a woman, my soul will soar to heaven, and antedate 
futurity. 

<f Not all the charms of grandeur: the allurements of 
the Braganza court, neither the solicitations of relations, 
or the interposition of friends, can make me swerve from 
my final resolution, to take the veil in a convent at 
St. Michael's, to leave a country and a world that can 



256 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 

afford me no happiness — deprived of the only object 
capable of communicating it." 

How beautiful and engaging are the sentiments of a 
line mind, expressed in an artless, simple manner. But, 
I must close this kind of correspondence : for there is not 
a convent in the Island but what would furnish materials 
of the most interesting nature — superior to all those which 
supply the romance writers of England, and consequently 
worthy the attention of the ablest writers of any country. 
I shall conclude this subject with a few remarks on the 
interior regulations of these convents. Their outward 
dress is no more than a kind of domino which is used on 
festivals and on attendance at the grate. It is a black 
habit or loose garb ; a cap, and veil generally falling back 
on the shoulders. The domestic dress under this, varies : 
—in some convents it is white, in some coloured, in most 
a French grey. The lady abbess is appointed by election 
for a limited time, commonly for three years, and is then 
succeeded by another of the sisterhood. The convents 
are supported for the most part by the friends of the nuns, 
and by the funds arising from lands with which they have 
been endowed by the munificence of individuals. The 
greatest harmony and friendship exists amongst the in- 
mates of each house, and the novitiates, and the daughters 
of the poor, are educated in their gloomy walls in a 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 257 

manner that is truly astonishing, and which is a strange 
contrast with the education of those who have not been 
in convents : an education which barely extends beyond 
the alphabet, which I esteem worse than the most direct 
and barbarous ignorance. 

The two friaries in this town are of the Franciscan and 
Dominican orders. The first dresses in a black robe, with 
a large, white, broad-brimmed hat, a girdle and cross, 
and the hair shaved from the top of the skull. The 
second is dressed in a white robe, black hat, and in other 
respects similar to the Franciscans. The manners and 
principles of these people I have described in various 
parts of my former letters. 



» 



LETTER XXXVIIL 



manners and society of the inhabitants of st. 

Michael's. 

I CANNOT justify to myself the idea of 
closing my correspondence, as far at least as it relates 
to this Island, without saying something relative to the 
society. And yet I can assure you it completely puzzles 
me what to say, because the English society is limited to 
Mr. Read's foreign connexions, and because the Portu- 
guese society is confined to natives with whom foreigners 
have little or no intercourse. Indeed the motives of 
association are not strong enough to compensate for the 
contrast in manners and principles. The Portuguese 
loves his repast in solitude, and eats without a fork. We 
like society at meals, and feel disgust at seeing a person 
serve himself with his fingers. I dined at Donna Paulino's 
the other day, and observing her use her fork with great 
awkwardness, I prevailed on her not to treat me with 
ceremony, but to lay it aside, and dine after the manner 
of her ancestors. She was quite pleased at the liberty I 
took, and told me she would be happy in cultivating an 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP ST. MICHAEL'S. 259 

acquaintance with the English of the place, but that the 
difference of their usages imposed so much restraint upon 
her that she came to a determination to debar herself from 
their society. And yet Donna Paulino is a character as 
well known for her uniform practice ofevery virtue, and her 
benevolence of heart, as she is universally admired for her 
extensive knowledge in the walks of science and learning. 
Having fallen into a sort of familiar friendship with this 
distinguished woman, I waited upon her on her Saint's 
day ; her fille-de-chambre having informed me, that the 
friends of her mistress were all in the habit of paying 
their respects to her on that festival. On entering the 
drawing-room I found her seated on a sofa, in a dress far 
from inelegant, and attended by eight or ten ladies and 
gentlemen, seated on chairs which were placed in parallel 
lines directly from the sofa to the center of the room. 
A profound silence reigned, and two servants were em- 
ployed in handing chocolate and cakes to the party thus 
assembled. I am a little particular in this description, 
because this is the exact form of every ceremonious visit 
paid by the Portuguese. Donna Paulino, knowing me 
to be an enemy of such formality and silence, proposed 
me a seat beside her, and entered into a mere chit-chat 
during an hour, at the expiration of which the other 
visitors rose to depart. Regulating myself by the same 
movement, I took my leave, but she bid me stay and go 

M M ■ 



260 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICH AEL's. 

with her to mass. " To mass," cried I, " Donna 
Paulino ! God forbid, what should I do at mass ?" It was 
all in vain, she was a fine and imperious woman, and would 
be obeyed. Finding all resistance vain, I bowed, presented 
her my arm, and encircled by a mob of maid and men 
servants, proceeded to the matrical church, which was full 
half a mile off. This wak a most mortifying inconvenience 
to me, for at every cross and every image we came to, we 
had to kneel devoutly in the dust, and sing aloud as many 
paters and aves as were due by pontifical law to the 
rank and importance of the object so addressed. On 
entering the church, I had to follow her example in 
dipping my finger in some holy water which lay in a 
stone vase affixed to the wall, and there being no seat, or 
any manner of accommodation for sitting, I had to kneel by 
her till mass was said, having no other amusement than 
watching her count her rosaries and whisper her paters 
and aves ; an employment that appeared to me to have 
no end. This important service over, I attended Paulino 
home to dinner, and I found her the best informed 
Islander I ever met with. I shall give you the substance 
of the information which I received from her on the 
subject of her own sex. 

Perpetually secluded ; going abroad very rarely, and 
under a veil, with which the face is completely covered, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MlCHAEl/S. 26l 

- the sun can impress no blemish on the freshness, or the 
colouring of the complexion of the better order of females 
in these islands ; an acrine and saline air, such as is 
common in Lisbon, can never affect the fairness and the 
delicacy of their skin. And for whom are so many charms 
so carefully preserved ? For the sight of one single man ; 
for a tyrant who holds his wife in perpetual captivity. 
An insuperable line of separation is drawn, in these 
countries, between the two constituent halves of the 
human species : the one, the graces of which form a 
contrast so agreeable to the force and the masculine 
beauties of the other, a prisoner in the Azores, becomes 
the exclusive slave of one individual. No man but the 
proprietor or his priest can enter where the wife is : no 
one must behold her face without the husband's permis- 
sion. No where is jealousy carried to such a horrid 
excess ; no where is it more ferocious. An inevitable 
death awaits the stranger who shall attempt to introduce 
himself into the apartments of the wife, or address a few 
words to her on meeting her out of doors. 

When Donna Paulino came to speak of e inevitable 
death/ and of the ferocious spirit of jealousy which 
animated her countrymen, I rose involuntarily from my 
seat, and was about to withdraw with precipitation. She 
smiled j and informed me I ran no risk in her house ; 

M M 2 



262 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAELS. 

that both she and her husband were of Spanish original ; 
that he, in consequence, allows her an estrecho or friend, 
and, though he knows her to be fond of society, and even 
to be gallanted, he fears nothing, because he knows the 
point of honor and the influence of religion are deeply 
imprinted on her mind. I returned to my seat with an 
impression of perfect security, and drew forth several 
further observations on this interesting head. 

Being permitted frequently to visit each other in little 
parties or female coteries, decency and reserve do not 
always defray the expense of their conversations. The 
absolute want of education and of principle, the idleness 
and abundance in which they pass their days, the con- 
straint in which they are unremittingly kept by their 
husbands, by which they are rendered extremely unac- 
quainted with delicacy either of sentiment or of conduct : 
the vivacity of their affections, the climate which com- 
municates its fires to hearts so fruitlessly disposed to 
tenderness ; Nature, whose powerful voice, too frequently 
misunderstood by 'those whom she calls to partake of her 
laws as well as of her pleasures, rouze their sensations ; 
every thing contributes to turn their thoughts from their 
tyrant husbands, and to direct their vivid imaginations, 
their desires, their discourse towards objects they are not 
at liberty to attain. They amuse themselves in their 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 263 

little coteries with completely changing clothes, and in 
mutually assuming each other's dress, and sometimes in 
assuming men's dress, and passing thus disguised through 
the streets. Intelligent in the art of amusing, and not of 
extinguishing the ardour which consumes them 3 the 
same disorder pursues them still into solitude. Sad 
resources, miserable indemnifications of a privation, which, 
under a temperature equally warm and dry, and to souls 
all on fire, appears no easy matter to support. 

The husbands are well aware of these dispositions, and 
their jealousy is the more offended at it. Not only do 
they bar all access to their wives to strangers, but even 
their own nearest relatives are frequently excluded. They 
know not what it is to repose confidence in the discretion 
of a wife. Unfaithful to nature, they perceive not that 
the infidelities of which they are jealous* are the well- 
merited recompense of their own contemptuous behaviour, 
of their rigour, and of their criminal and disgusting 
caprices. 

It would betray great ignorance of the state of women 
in the Azores, to imagine that they are all endowed with 
the same charms, that they enjoy the same elegant 
accommodations of life as the class I have been speaking 
of. The married women of the highest order are similar 
to exotic flowers, whose lustre is to be preserved only by 



264 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/S. 

attention and management living solely in the employ- 
ment of prolonging the duration of the gifts derived from 
nature, and of adorning them by the richness of art. The 
women of the lower order, instead of that whiteness, of 
that delicate colouring with which the complexion of the 
first is animated, have, like the men, a tawny skin, and 
like the males of the same order, they wear the garb of a 
rigid economy. Almost all of them, especially in the 
country, have hardly sufficient to keep the movements of 
the body from being seen : but they are little concerned 
with that, provided the face is covered with a full cap or 
coarse veil ! 

The most remarkable trait of beauty in the Western 
Isles, is large black eyes ; and it is well known that 
nature has made this a characteristic sign of the women 
of the Azores. But not content with these gifts, they 
employ every effort of art to make their eyes appear 
larger and blacker. 

One of those things which the love of self, and the 
desire of pleasing others, makes most in request with the 
women of the Western Isles, is to have the skin soft and 
smooth all over the body, without suffering the slightest 
appearance of roughness to remain. Next to this desire 
of having the skin soft, and of the most beautiful polish, 
is the excessive anxiety to acquire as great a degree of 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEl/s. 265 

plumpness as possible. The taste of the men does not 
incline them to thin and limber shapes, to elegant forms ; 
but they admire women that are rather corpulent and 
full of flesh. In order to attain this perfection of beauty, 
they make use of various drugs, as the nuts of the cocoa- 
tree, the buds of the hennodactyl, rasped down and 
intermixed with sugar. 

The idea of a very fat woman is almost always asso- 
ciated in England and Holland with that of flabbiness of 
flesh, of defect in the elasticity of the countours. This 
is not, however, the case with the women of the Azores 
in general. Those of St. Michael's in particular, more 
favoured by nature than the females of the other islands, 
preserve longer their firmness of flesh : and that attractive 
property, added to the softness, to the fairness of their 
skin, to the freshness of their carnation, render them very 
agreeable, very desirable women, when their en-bon-point 
is not carried to excess. 

Till within the last two years the women of the best 
order dressed with the most exact uniformity, and in a 
dress that never varied for the last two hundred years. 
It consisted of a black silk robe, and a black shawl, cast 
over the head and dropping down the waist. The arms 
raised in a perpendicular position to the head, each thumb 



266 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MICHAEL'S 

behind each ear, and the fingers only disengaged to 
manage the shawl in such a manner as to leave an aperture 
for the sight. And so dexterous are they in this em- 
ployment, that they can see their way and observe 
objects without any possibility of having their persons 
discriminated or their features observed. This dull 
uniformity is now breaking, and a few scarlet and blue 
cloaks with gold clasps and embroidery are sometimes 
seen to checker this dreary monotony. 

The above observations do not apply to single women. 
In general they are kept in convents to the very day of 
their marriage, or if at home, they pass the day in their 
own apartments, and are never to be seen but at mass, or 
on going to church. Their dress then is black, and a 
black veil instead of a shawl cast over the head and 
descending nearly to the feet. No woman, married or 
single, of any consideration in life, ever goes abroad 
unattended. In general every lady has two suivantes 
close behind her, and often some old male relative attended 
by her confessor or priest. To see several parties of this 
description in the streets on festival days, it conveys the 
idea of a solemn procession, or of a great national mourn- 
ing. But the relation of such things is nothing ; it is 
seeing them performed that is either ridiculous or 
affecting. 



LETTER XXXIX. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 

TO pursue my original intention of giving 
you a complete account of all the western islands, I must 
at length abandon St. Michael's, and invite you to travel 
with me to Saint Mary's, which lies to the southward, 
distant about forty miles, but easily seen from the 
heights of Ponto del Gada on a clear and fine day. 

I found Saint Mary to be a small well cultivated 
island, without any volcanic remains, but with many 
vestiges of sudden shocks from the vicissitudes of earth- 
quakes. These exist in the adjoining little islands called 
Legoinas and Seca, which have been evidently torn from 
the main island, and in the bed of a river now dry, 
and which lost its waters by a chasm formed at its foun- 
tain which caused its waters to flow downwards and never 
more to rise. — The genus of the soil is a simple and pri- 
mitive clay, decomposable into other simple substances, 
and differing in this respect from the earths which com- 

N N 



268 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 

pose the soil of all the other islands. In consequence of 
which it is, that St. Mary manufactures a considerable 
quantity of common pottery, and affords employment to 
several brick-makers. And I am confident, from the 
whiteness which some of it assumes in the fire, that there 
are varieties of clay in the island proper for porcelain 
and the best description of china ware. It also abounds 
in boles, a genus of earth less coherent and more friable 
than the clay, more readily uniting with water, and more 
freely subsiding from it. This admixture makes the clay 
favorable to the growth of wheat ; and perhaps there are 
not finer crops of this grain produced in the same 
compass of territory, than what this little island affords. 
It may here be remarked, that in a hot country or dry 
climate clay is of great importance to agriculture : by its 
coherency it retains humidity, by which means it assists 
vegetation in loose soils, through which the water passes 
too quickly ; whereas, in cold and wet climates, clay 
grounds, when wet, are apt to chill and rot plants by the 
redundanc)^ of water they contain ; and, when dry, to 
choke them by the hard stony texture they assume. 
The philosopher may draw another argument from the 
clay which composes this island. It is a proof to him, 
that all the islands of the Azores do not owe their origin 
to volcanic eruptions under the sea. For clay, being a 
simple and primitive earth, must owe its properties to 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 269 

the gradual formation of the surface of the globe since 
the period of the Deluge, and is as distinct from, lavatic 
matter as one substance can be from another. Wheat 
is the predominant produce, of which it sends to St. 
Michael's for re-exportation fifteen hundred tons. The 
reason of sending to St. Michael's is, the roadstead of 
Saint Mary's is too much exposed, and the anchorage 
besides is bad. Nearly the whole of the island is the 
property of a convent, in which are several inferior nuns. 
The nunnery has a granary attached to it : it receives 
its rent in wheat, there being no circulating medium, and 
persons have to treat with the mother abbess who stand 
in need of grain. The nuns are simple and rude : on 
visiting their grate they all flock to it, and stare with a 
vacancy that shews want of decency or want of souL 
There are also a few friars on this isolated spot, who are 
as barbarous as they possibly can be. I shall give you 
a small specimen, which will enable you to estimate the 
manners and principles of this holy tribe. I was sitting 
peaceably at the door of the corregidor of the town of 
Santa Maria, when my ears were assailed at once by a 
most vociferous shouting, accompanied by a most vile 
noise of guitars, violins, drums, and other nefarious 
instruments, of which I could neither calculate the sounds 
nortell thename. Recovering from the astonishment which 
this at first occasioned me, I perceived advancing towards 

N N 2 



270 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 

me a kind of rabble or mob, headed by four monks 
holding lighted tapers in their hands, and followed by 
four more, who sustained a canopy over the head of a 
fifth who held the Host or image of God in his hands. 
The shouting was performed by the monks, and the 
infernal music by the men, women, and children who 
composed the mob. Notwithstanding the rapidity with 
which they rushed along, and the kind of ferocious 
exultation which the whole concourse appeared to 
exhibit, I rose suddenly up, from an impulse of curiosity, 
and suffered myself to be conducted by the stream, till I 
found myself, together with the principal performers I 
have described, brought up into the illuminated chamber 
of a dying man ! This ceremony it seems was what is 
called the administration of extreme unction, and view 
of the image of God before the animal functions are 
palsied by the extinction of the vital fire. On our 
entering the apartment the various bells of the town 
were set a ringing, and when the Host was proffered to 
the dying sinner a small bell was rung at his ear, to 
retard the instantaneous passage of life and rouse the 
languid, fainting wretch to a sensibility of what was 
passing. This produced the desired effect. The life of 
the dying man justly revolted at an uproar so uncongenial 
with its deplorable state, and it made an agonized effort, 
not so much to prolong its existence, as to overcome 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MAHY'S. 271 

the obstacles by which death was impeded, and as well 
as those terrific ceremonies which were presumed neces- 
sary for the establishment of the soul in another world. 
Exhausted by this effort, the victim swooned away, and 
as he awoke the sensibility of his nerves was finally 
destroyed, and he died at the moment in which the 
extreme unction was administered ; his death appearing 
to me to be accelerated by the tumult and uproar with 
which this last act of grace was attended. But these 
are thoughts on which it is the sickness of thinking to 
dwell ; and yet I must conclude this subject. Hooted 
thus into eternity, the priests and their attendant caval- 
cade retired, and left the place to a few groaning, con- 
vulsed, and weeping friends, whose sorrow, after all, 
appeared more the result of judgment than of sentiment, 
of vacuum of heart than of affliction of mind. The 
burial of this poor man was as extraordinary as his death 
was singular and turbulent. On the evening of the day 
of his decease, he was placed on a bier, and carried in 
procession to church, where the body was exposed, and 
surrounded by priests holding wax flambeaux, and sing- 
ing passages from Scripture in the Latin language as loud 
as they could possibly bawl them out. This service 
over, a kind of a trap door was opened in the floor 
of the church, and the body, without a coffin, was pre- 
cipitated into a species of dry well, where it was covered 



272 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 

with lime to hasten decay, and from which it would be 
taken in a few days, or as soon as another death required 
the small space where it lay to consume : for there is 
but this one grave for the whole congregation of the 
church ; therefore, as soon as the flesh is digested by the 
lime, or as soon as the grave is wanted by a more recent 
corpse, the bones or the cadavre are taken up and cast 
into a charnel-house, where they are lost in a promis- 
cuous heap and never more thought of or seen. I have 
looked into one of these horrid charnel-houses, said an 
English officer, of the name of Steele : it contained the 
shattered skeletons of several hundred bodies, in the 
various stages of natural decay ! These are the moments 
when the decent and respectable manners of the pro- 
testant church appear in a beauteous modesty, that the 
gaudy magnificence of catholic splendour can never 
attain. Here we pause to bless the God who has placed 
us beyond the deceit of infatuating bigotry, and taught 
us meekness and humble prayer. I have witnessed the 
habits of a people that dishonor the finest works of 
nature, and that exist insensible of the favours she heaps 
upon them. 

The custom of disposing of the dead in this summary 
manner, and of substituting charnel-houses for burial 
grounds, is not peculiar to Saint Mary's, it is common 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 273 

to all the islands of the Azores, and extends as far as 
Madeira. And yet the most savage of Indian tribes, 
the most barbarous nations of the West have their 
barrows and their tumuli, their sepulchres and their sar- 
cophagi. Even nations who are ignorant of the true 
God, and who bend the knee to the deity of unenlight- 
ened reason, to one who intoxicates his votaries with the 
draughts of delusion, who pollutes and unmans them by 
his debasing worship, who degrades the celestial resem- 
blance in their nature, and drives them from the styes 
of brutality to play their savage freaks of madness 
through the world, even such a people talk of " the 
grave of their fathers," and all savages as they are, with 
a mild and benevolent spirit, frequently visit the con- 
secrated spot under whose sod the head of their an- 
cestor securely and decently reposes. But here, in the 
midst of a religious and civilized people ; a people pro- 
fessing humanity and wisdom, the dead are exposed as 
dogs upon a dunghill, and all respect and kindness are 
faded with the bloom of life, or perish within the com- 
pass of an hour. The dead are not only exposed as 
objects of scorn to a merciless world, but they are 
partially consumed by an operation of art, and then 
cast in a situation which is held by the relatives them- 
selves in the greatest horror. The cartilage not yielding 
to lime or to putrefaction so soon as the flesh, many 



274 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 

skeletons remain entire, till the sexton knocks them 
asunder with his spade, to pile the bones in less compass, 
and preserve room, not order, in the human slaughter- 
house attached to each chapel, monastery, and church. 
Hence are those people deprived of the powerful influ- 
ence that arises from the sense of remembrance, from 
the sacred religion of the grave, in quelling the passions, 
in reclaiming the wanderings, in correcting the disorders 
of the heart. There are a few persons, however, in these 
islands whose feelings revolt at this unbecoming treat- 
ment of the dead, because they are so outrageously 
abused. Those persons, anxious to preserve some tes- 
timony of former existence that may strike the senses, 
go to the charnel-house while the frame is yet festering, 
or before the resemblance is utterly destroyed, and there 
contract with the sexton for the preservation of the 
skull ; which is effected by separating it from the ske- 
leton, and placing it in a matrix of mortar plashed up 
against the wall. This the relatives occasionally visit ; 
but I doubt much whether such an exhibition of death 
in all its horrors is calculated to make the impressions of 
which " a green-turfed grave" is thought capable. It 
appears to me to excite more of horror than of sym- 
pathy, more of criticism than of kindness. The Portu- 
guese may think otherwise ; therefore they are not, 
without further reflection, to be condemned. It can 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. MARY'S. 275 

only be lamented that this people will deprive them- 
selves of the protection of these attachments which all 
the rest of the world consider susceptible of improving 
those springs and powers of the human heart which are 
the true characteristics of civilization. 



o © 



LETTER XL. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP THE ISLAND OF TERCERA. 

THE next tour you have to take with me is 
to the island of Tercera. In proceeding to Tercera, 
being only in a small coasting vessel, I had to return to 
Saint Michael's, where I soon obtained a passage in a 
schooner which was consigned to Mr. Read to freight 
with oranges, but whose destination for the moment was 
changed by a circumstance, which, as it relates to the 
commerce of the island in general, I shall relate. 

The arbitrary nature of the government is such, that 
any person desirous of monopolizing the whole of any 
particular branch of commerce, has nothing more to do 
than to pay the governor a certain sum of money, for 
which he receives an exclusive licence, and consequently 
authority to absorb the entire of the trade, so contracted 
for, to himself. In consequence of this facility, a mer- 
chant of Ponto del Gada obtained a contract for the 
supply of the whole island with tobacco and snuff: in 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP TERCERA. 277 

the course of a short time he made a considerable fortune* 
but it so happened, from the prevalence of contrary 
winds, that his stock was exhausted, and that his sup- 
plies failed to meet the wants of the place. This neglect 
or misfortune, on his part, soon raised a party against 
him, and a public commotion was feared, if snuff and 
tobacco could not be immediately supplied. For the 
passion of the natives for these articles is so great, that 
they would cheerfully submit to any privation sooner 
than go without tobacco or snuff. And I was informed, 
that no event of tyranny or oppression ever rose their 
mind to a state of insurrection, and yet, such is the 
effect of habit and effeminacy, that the temporary want 
of this miserable drug could elevate them to one of the 
most powerful and gigantic efforts of the public mind. 

To appease this unnatural appetite, and suppress the » 
spirit of insurrection, Mr. Read diverted the destination 
of his schooner, and sent her to Tercera with the con- 
tractor, who expected to be supplied from the stores 
there, until his orders from Lisbon came to hands. In 
this schooner I obtained a passage : it occupied twenty- 
four hours — the distance being forty leagues. We an- 
chored in the road of Angra, from whence the city of the 
same name makes a most beautiful appearance ; the 
government house, convents, and other public buildings 

o o 2 



278 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP TERCERA. 

being seen to the greatest advantage, and secured from 
attack by sea, by several forts which cover the landing 
and ornament the shore for a sweep of two miles distance 
at least. 

The formalities on landing are common to all the 
islands, but Tercera being the seat of government, they 
are observed with more punctilio than elsewhere. I first 
went to the British Consul, to whom I had a letter of 
introduction, and was escorted from thence by two sol- 
diers to the government house, where I was interrogated 
by an adjutant, and after some small delay introduced to 
the Governor himself. I found him to be the most polite 
and affable Portuguese I had ever met with, and received 
from him much civility and information during my half- 
hour^ stay. I next returned to the Consul's where I met 
all the resident Scotch and Irish of the place, and who 
associated there for the hospitable purpose of inviting 
me, each to his respective house. There being no tavern 
in the city, I took up my abode with one, on whom a 
letter of introduction gave me a kind of claim. 

The island is called Tercera in consequence of its being 
the third which was discovered in succession, and it is 
the seat of government, because it nearly forms the center 
of the Nine, and has also a safer roadstead than St. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TERCERA. 279 

Michael's, or any other of the islands, except Fayal, 
which lies too far to the west for the purpose of distri- 
butive justice and equal legislation. In form it is wider, 
and not so long as St. Michael's ; it is about sixty miles in 
circumference, and the exterior appearance differs from 
that of St. Michael's in a very extraordinary degree, 
The summits of its mountains compose, for the most 
part, very beautiful and fertile plains, and entirely desti- 
tute of those cones, craters, and bifurcated points which 
distinguish the mountains of St. Michael's, and exhibit 
such strong evidence of volcanic eruptions. Not but 
there have been volcanos in Tercera, but the time has 
been so remote that their vortexes have filled up, either 
by the frequent and sudden absorption, or by the gradual 
operation of time. The lava is in a general state of de- 
composition, which added to the level state of the craters, 
is sufficient proof, that the volcanos of Tercera were in 
full action, several hundred years before the mountains 
of St Michael's were elevated by fire. There are neither 
boiling nor mineral springs in Tercera, but it is abun- 
dantly supplied with fine water from fountains and 
streams, which flow from the mountains down to the sea 
on every side. 



The productions are principally confined to wheat, 
Indian corn, French and broad beans. The redundancy 



280 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TERCERA. . 

of which is exported to Lisbon and Madeira, and for 
which a return is made in colonial produce, money, and 
British goods. The vessels employed in this traffic 
amount to sixty or seventy, and average about eighty 
tons each. Oranges and lemons are cultivated more for 
domestic, than for commercial purposes, and the wine is 
neither abundant nor good. The soil being more con- 
genial to agriculture and pasturage, than to the cultiva- 
tion of fruit, grain and cattle are to be had in abundance, 
and at a very reduced price, and the population amount- 
ing to about 50,000 souls, are enabled to live with a faci- 
lity hardly credible to persons who are compelled to labor 
twelve hours to realize the price of a quartern loaf of 
bread. Fish is also in great plenty and of the finest 
quality, but from this, and indeed from every other 
natural blessing, the natives derive no manner of advan- 
tage. Instead of their own pure unadulterated wine, 
they drink a deleterious spirit introduced from the Bra- 
zils ; in the place of eating the best of fish furnished by 
Providence on their own coast, they consume nothing 
but buccalo, dog and cod fish, salt and often putrid, 
brought from the banks of Newfoundland and Mediter- 
ranean sea. For their own beef, the finest in the world, 
and for their own pork, which cannot be excelled, they 
substitute the dry jirk and miserable bacon of Portugal. 
And for their own linen,, which is admirable of the kind, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TERCERA. 281 

they accept a meagre cotton which imbibes the dew, and 
consequently is the worst thing that can, in such a climate 
be worn. I know not whether to attribute this insensi- 
bility to the bounty of nature, to perversion of judgment, 
or to depravity of heart. Yet it cannot be the latter, 
for the people of Tercera are held in great estimation ; 
regarded as mild and benevolent ; as superior in point of 
civilization to the inhabitants of the sister islands around. 
I have noticed this preference and its cause. Tercera is 
the seat of government. A better description of clergy, 
of military, of civil officers, and of settlers, has, of course, 
come to it. The police and the laws are also better 
attended to, and the people have both example and 
terror to improve the condition of their minds. The 
Portuguese society, that is what is commonly called the 
best native society, is much better at Angra than at del 
Gada. At Angra the manners of Lisbon very much 
prevail, and an etiquette is observed which would look 
ridiculous in a mere trading town. Assemblies are fre- 
quent ; card parties every evening, and dinners on some 
few public days. The dinner parties are of very short 
duration. What wine is drank, is drank before the cloth 
is removed. Coffee is then served, after which the com- 
pany disperse ; the English, to enjoy their bottle at their 
own homes ; the Portuguese, to enjoy a ciesta or after- 
noon nap. 



i 



282 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TERCERA. 

At Tercera, as at Saint Michael's, there is no amuse- 
ment more prevalent than that of visiting the convents. 
Their music is in truth, a grand attraction. To hear 
the perfection in which the nuns jointly and individually 
perform, one should be taught to believe that the in- 
struction of harmony alone was the proper end and 
design of all convents. No other object is held up by 
them to admiration, no higher excellency seems possible 
to be attained. And the only danger likely to arise 
from its perfection is, that it is a science so alluring to 
the imagination, that it has a tendency to overpower the 
faculties of women, and to destroy that calm and equal 
temper of mind which seem best adapted to a life of 
privation and seclusion. They probably are convinced 
that this mode of address is the surest passport to the 
hearts of the people, and the appeal is made so frequently, 
and with so much enthusiasm, that the people and the 
performers are deceived, and imagine that to be a religious 
exercise, which is nothing more than an indemnification, 
to souls all on fire, of a privation, which, in such a cli- 
mate, it is not easy to support. One of the convents is 
remarkable for the beauty of its women. It is a convent 
for the higher order, one, in which its amiable inhabit- 
ants cannot be seen without exciting the strongest sensa- 
tions of indignation and abhorrence, against the system 
which thus shuts them from a world, to which they 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TERCERA. 283 

would be so bright an ornament. Besides, what a pro- 
gress have the lovely beings to travel through, before 
they can obtain the peace and tranquillity which they 
originally possessed ! How like the wounds of the body 
must be those of their minds ! How burning the fever ! 
How slow, how hesitating, how relapsing the process of 
convalescence ! Through what a variety of sufferings, 
through what new scenes and changes must the devoted 
victims pass, ere they can re-attain, should they ever re- 
attain, that health of the soul, of which they have been 
despoiled by the cold and deliberate machinations both 
of their parents and of persons professing to be friends 
to the holy mother church. Before I leave this subject 
of the convents, I must inform you that I have had a 
conversation with the Governor on the subject of the 
Franciscan who was sent to him for judgment from Ribeira 
Grande, where he seduced a beautiful nun in one of the 
convents, in which he officiated as chaplain and confessor. 
From the interest I took in that unfortunate nun's resto- 
ration to happiness, which was very great, as you may 
recollect from the cast of my letter, in which I describe 
her calamity, I could not resist addressing myself to the 
Governor with more than ordinary zeal. I told him, in 
every point of view in which I could look at the subject, 
I saw him called upon to give a verdict, of bold, just, 
indignant, and exemplary punishment. The injury of 

p p 



284 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP TERCERA. 

the unfortunate nun demanded it of his justice. The 
delinquency of the friar provoked it by its enormity. 
The profession of the church on which he relies for im- 
punity, calls upon you (said I, addressing myself to the 
Governor) loudly calls upon you to tell him, that crime 
does not ascend to the clerical rank of the perpetrator, 
but the perpetrator sinks from his rank, and descends to 
the level of his delinquency. The sacrilegious intruder 
has profaned the religion of that sacred altar so ele- 
vated in your worship, so precious to your devotions, 
and it is your duty to avenge the crime. You must 
either pull down the altar and abolish the worship, or 
you must preserve its sanctity undebased. There is no 
alternative between the universal exclusion of all man- 
kind from the threshold of your convents, and the most 
rigorous punishment of the priest who is admitted and 
betrays. This friar has been so intrusted, he has so 
betrayed, and you ought to make him a most signal 
example. 

The Governor assured me that he sent him to Lisbon 
with a proces-verbal of the strongest nature, and that, 
were not ecclesiastical cases to go, in all instances, to the 
supreme court on the Continent, he would have punished 
him according to the extent of his guilt. This friar, as 
I observed on a former occasion, has been sent from 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP TERCER A . 285 

Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, but no person entertains any 
hopes that there is justice or resolution sufficient in that 
court to hang a monk. 

I have omitted to mention that there is an immense 
large building, originally intended both for palace and 
barracks, on a very large and beautiful plain, on the 
summit of a mountain no great distance from Angra. 
This building is now made little or no use of. If ever 
the island was made a depot for troops, it would be of 
great consequence for their accommodation, and the more 
so as the plain on which the building stands is eminently 
calculated for the review and discipline of an army. 
The cheapness of provisions also renders the island eligible 
for military purposes, 

The town next in rank to Angra, is Praya. It is de- 
lightfully situated on the east side, and there is good 
anchorage in the roadstead. 



p p 2- 



LETTER XLI. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLANDS OF GRACIOSA 

AND ST. GEORGE. 

MOST persons who have visited these 
islands, and who have condescended to make any passing 
remarks upon them, speak of Graciosa as the most beau- 
tiful of them all, and apply to it other epithets and 
denominations, which denote a state of pacification and 
repose. The word graciosa itself implies a kind of 
paradise ; and it is worthy of remark, that the Portu- 
guese gave it this proud title while it was yet in a state 
of nature, and not ornamented as it now is, by the hand 
of man. 

I embarked for this island at Praya, and made the 
run in six hours : the usual time. The principal town 
is Santa Cruz, but the roadstead is open ; and without 
a traveller have abundance of time, he had better always 
sleep on board, for the instances are numerous of vessels 
being compelled to run out to sea, and not recovering 
the island again for six or eight weeks. Indeed, the 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF GRACIOSA. 287 

island requires no great time to explore, it is barely 
twenty miles in circumference; and as its productions 
are similar to those of Tercera, and absorbed in the 
commerce of that place, there is little left to gratify 
curiosity, or to inform the mind. There is one particular 
circumstance, however, that must strike the attention 
of the most ordinary observer. The cattle of every 
description diminish in proportion, as it would appear, 
with the diminution of the islands. In Saint Michael's 
they are more than ordinarily large, in Tercera they are 
of a middling size, in Graciosa they are small, and in 
Flores and Corvo the volume of an ox does not exceed 
that of an Alderney cow. There is also a difference in 
the produce ; the fruit, in particular, degenerates in 
the small islands, and the exotic plants lose considerably 
both in perfume and bloom. Notwithstanding this 
latter fact, Graciosa possesses, beyond contradiction, in 
a high degree, the properties which have been ascribed 
to it of peculiar beauty, and what moreover may be 
called a character of rich luxuriancy. It is extremely 
verdant and fertile; and there is, during its lucid periods, 
a mild and mellow effulgence shed over it which I never 
perceived on the face of any country in which I had ever, 
been. 



The character of the inhabitants accords with the 



288 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. GEORGE. 

features of the country. They are mild and peaceable, 
ignorant and happy. When I say ignorant, let it 
not be thought that I am speaking of a horde of savages. 
Every operation performed by the people of Graciosa 
bears the stamp of the most perfect intelligence. Their 
houses a*e well built ; their boats of a construction from 
their own model ; their linen wove by themselves ; the 
fruit trees ranged judiciously in their fields, which have 
all the embellished aspect of your, orchards and planta- 
tions, without their tedious uniformity ; all their farms 
cultivated to the highest degree, and the instruments of 
their arts for the most part made by themselves ; such 
are the rights which they possessed, at least to my 
esteem, notwithstanding the little time which I had to 
be acquainted with them. 

On leaving Graciosa, I steered my next course to 
Saint George, a small island as celebrated for its cala- 
mities and rudeness, as what Graciosa is for the fertility 
of its soil and the felicity of its inhabitants. In size 
there is no essential difference ; in form, the contrast is 
very striking, Graciosa being a short oval, and Saint 
George being a narrow and long ridge, with both seas 
visible from its high grounds. The three islands of 
Tercera, Graciosa, and Saint George, constitute a tri- 
angle in the ocean, and are at equal distances from each 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. GEORGE. 289 

other. The two last are tributaries to the first, as Saint. 
Mary's is to Saint Michael's : that is, having no good 
harbours or safe roadsteads, they send their produce to 
Tercera, where it is negotiated for them, and from whence 
they draw their returns. 

In making the island from the north side, it is proper 
to stand round it, in order to make the best anchorage, 
which is at Ponto de las Velas, on the beach of which 
stands a neat little town with churches, convents, and all 
the other glittering emblems of Christianity, for which 
the most ordinary Portuguese villages are conspicuous. 
At the time of my arrival the inhabitants were in deep 
mourning, and a character of dark gloom and mystery 
pervaded the whole jcene. The remains of consterna- 
tion and horror had preserved its reign in most coun- 
tenances, and made that kind of impression on me, that 
I hesitated to demand the cause ; nor was it necessary 
to demand it, for on walking to an eminence above the 
town, I could perceive the cause to exist in the general 
wreck- and smoking ruins of the country. You will 
comprehend from this, that the island had lately under- 
gone the dreadful operation of an earthquake, and the 
more dreadful evil of a volcanic eruption. It was in 
the year 1808, when a caldeira, seated in the middle of 
the island, was perceived to be in a very agitated state, 



290 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. GEORGE. 

and a low subterraneous noise was heard at the same time, 
but which increased in detonation, at intervals, to such a 
degree, as to cause the windows of the houses to shake. 
From producing that effect it began to vomit vast quan- 
tities of melted matter instead of water which it was accus- 
tomed to cast up, and the earth roared and laboured 
most dreadfully. For several days the island continued 
in a state of fermentation, and night and day the most 
awful appearances and rumbling noises were seen and 
heard. At length the moment of the final and fatal 
catastrophe arose. It commenced its career with a 
hideous bellowing, which was succeeded by loud claps 
of apparent thunder, and in an instant after the whole 
island appeared one liquid stream of fire. The thick 
cloud of smoke was so great, that the darkness was 
equal to that of midnight, or at least so great as to 
render the ignited matter more bright, terrific, and clear,, 
The largest stream took its course towards the beautiful 
little town of Ursula, the inhabitants of which, under an 
impression that the entire island was devoted to total 
annihilation, flocked to the convents and churches, and 
abandoned themselves to prayer or to despair. They 
saw no reasonable grounds for hope, for at every clap 
of thunder, or rather at every explosion which resembled 
the report of the largest artillery, the earth opened in 
different places and cast up red hot stones, scoriae, and 



i 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. GEORGE. 291 

ashes, and then the lava flowing over, rushed down the 
sides of the mountain, threatening every part of the 
island at one and the same time. At one tremendous 
instant the fate of Ursula was thought to be irrevocably 
decided. The black stormy clouds covering a bright 
column of fire were advancing rapidly upon the town, 
and had reached so near that the windows were broken, 
the walls cracked, the houses shook, and such of the 
inhabitants as had resolution to leave their churches, 
made for the shore, to be prepared to plunge into the 
sea ; preferring to perish by water than by fire. This 
fountain of ignited matter, after destroying a consider- 
able portion of the town, was directed in its course by a 
valley, at the extremity of which stood the convent of 
the Sacred Sisters, known vulgarly by the name of the 
Ursulines. This circumstance became the origin of a 
most interesting and extraordinary spectacle. The 
mother abbess assembled all her nuns, placed a crucifix 
in each of their hands, cast the gates of the convent 
open, and advanced to meet the column of fire, in solemn 
procession, weeping and praying aloud, and beseeching 
the Virgin, and their patron Saint, to avert the ven- 
geance which threatened their house, and to save them 
from the destruction which was then desolating every 
thing within their view. In an instant the liquid trans- 
parent fire assumed a change of course, and no longer 

Q Q 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. GEORGE. 

menaced the convent with desolation and ruin. The 
nuns prostrated themselves on the ground. The lava 
bent its way to the ocean without doing much further 
damage to the town, and on the third day, the commo- 
tion of the earth and the fire from the eruptions entirely 
ceased. The Ursulines returned to their convent singing 
hymns of praise ; and the people resorted to them to 
express their gratitude, and to assure them that they 
would ever esteem them as saints when living, and 
canonize their bones when dead. 

Having been led by curiosity to the spot where this 
miracle was performed, I soon perceived that it could, 
with great propriety, be attributed to other causes than 
those of the Ursulines 5 intervention and prayer. I could 
perceive that the valley was intersected with a ravine, 
no doubt the effect of a former earthquake, which com- 
municated with the ocean ; and that the ravine, having 
a more rapid descent than the valley, the fire naturally 
took that channel, and soon spent itself in the abyss of 
the sea. You may be persuaded that I did not divulge 
these remarks. To a people who have so few subjects 
of felicity, it would be cruel to destroy this their late 
fountain of confidence and pleasure. They look up to 
the Ursulines as " Saving Angels." God forbid that I 
should attempt to shake their faith! 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ST. GEORGE. 293 

The injury done to the island cannot be made good 
for one hundred years : nor is it probable that it ever 
will assume the smooth and florid surface which it once 
possessed. Hundreds of the best cultivated acres have 
been covered with lava, scoria?, ashes, and stone, and 
several lives, and numerous flocks and herds of cattle 
were lost. And yet this tremendous visitation has not 
awakened any considerable spirit of emigration. Few 
have absented themselves since the catastrophe, and 
nearly all are employed in repairing the damages the 
island has sustained. There is, however, that kind of 
gloom over society which induced me to hasten my 
departure ; and after going to the grate of the Ursulines 
to receive their benediction, and a few tokens of their 
amiable and benevolent dispositions, I departed for 
Fayal, which, though not next to Saint George, is the 
only safe place to make, the anchorage of Pico being 
bad. 



QQ2 



LETTER XLII. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF FAYAL. 

ON ray passage from Saint George to Fayal, 
I coasted along the northern side of Pico, which is distant 
but a short ferry over from Santa Cruz, and I can assure 
you that nothing can equal the grandeur of the perspective 
of the mountain, of its decorations, and of the high dome 
which majestically crowns it. It is impossible to pass 
by this magnificent, though small island, without stop- 
ping to enjoy the noble coup d'ceil which it presents, and 
feeling the pleasing sensations awakened by its improved 
state of agriculture, and the wealth and employment 
which its vineyards afford to the numerous happy people 
who are seen perpetually occupied upon its banks. All 
round the base of the mountain the hand of industry has 
been busily employed in forming gardens, vineyards, and 
corn-grounds, and in forming a strong contrast with the 
rude state of the uncultivated summit. The form of the 
island is also an object of interest. It is that of a sugar- 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAYAL. 295 

loaf, the sea washing its base, and its head enveloped in 
the clouds. Such, at least, is its appearance from the 
side of Fayal. On that of Saint George the land is seen 
to trend from the foot of the mountain to the E. S. E., 
which justifies a conjecture that the principal stream of 
lava which issued from the crater of Pico, took this 
direction, and this prolongated the base of the volcanic 
cone on the south-east side. For, whatever doubts there 
may be as to the origin of the other islands, there exists 
no doubt whatever that this celebrated peak is a volcanic 
production, generated by the eruption of fire from the 
bottom of the sea. And yet the sea is not to be fathomed 
within half a mile of its base, and the elevation is seven 
thousand feet high ! The grounds on which this opinion 
is formed are by no means hypothetical. The entire base 
of the Peak is formed of lavatic stone to the lowest 
water-mark ; its soil is a decomposed lava, lying on a 
stratum of lava, and the Peak itself, when struck, either 
by accident or intent, returns a palsied or reverberating- 
sound. It is, in short, a hollow cone, created by the 
expansive properties of fire ; for expansion and fluidity 
result from the same operation of caloric ; that of enter- 
ing into the pores of bodies, separating their particles, 
and, by the addition of their own bulk, necessarily 
increasing the bulk of that on which it operates. 



296 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAYAL. 

The Peak produces a wood in considerable quantity, 
whose quality is as good as that of mahogany : it is in 
great request at Lisbon, and is manufactured into writing- 
desks, work-tables, and other pieces of fancy furniture. 
But its great wealth consists in wine, of which it pro- 
duces annually about five thousand pipes. This wine 
has been latterly cultivated in a very improved manner ; 
its principal market is the West Indies ; the British 
commissaries of those colonies keep an agent at Fayal, 
who contracts for the principal portion of each vintage, 
and sends it off by vessels employed for that particular 
trade. The wine is of the colour and flavor of inferior 
Madeira, is cheaper by 50 per cent., and is held in great 
repute by the navy and army in the West Indies ; who 
find it, from experience, to be much superior to any other 
wine in a hot climate. The inhabitants of the Peak 
prefer to live in detached houses, villas, and hamlets, to 
towns and villages. There is one town, called Logens, 
chiefly for the accommodation of the monks, and a vil- 
lage opposite Santa Cruz. But there is no harbour or 
any anchorage for other than boats that can run into 
little bays and creeks. In consequence of this deficiency 
the Peak serves as a tributary to Fayal in the manner 
that Saint Mary does to Saint Michael, and as Tercera 
receives the produce of Graciosa and Saint George. 



i 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAY AL. 297 

On entering Fayal it requires but a small portion of 
penetration to perceive that its port is by far the safest in 
all the Azores. There were in it thirty sail, on the day 
of my arrival, and I was informed there was sufficient 
room, and good anchorage, for sixty more. There are 
several English, Scotch, and Irish settlers in Fayal, 
consuls from various nations, and more strangers to be met 
with than could reasonably be expected from the size of 
the place. The original trade consisted in the supply of 
ships homeward bound from the Indies, from the South 
Seas, and from the Brazils ; but since the increase and 
improvement of the Peak wine, of the advanced state of 
agriculture, and the more general diffusion of a liberal 
and tolerant spirit in politics, the commerce of Fayal 
has extended itself considerably. In good years from 
eight to ten thousand pipes of wine are exported, and 
corn and provisions sufficient to freight seventy vessels 
of from eighty to one hundred tons each. It has this 
advantage, that it is directly in the track of homeward 
bound European ships, with which it can carry on a con- 
siderable direct and indirect traffic ; whereas Saint 
Michael's is too far to the east, and is seldom visited 
but by vessels out in their reckoning, and in want of 
provision or repairs. It has also another advantage, 
which may ultimately make it the centre of all the com- 
merce of all the islands. A good harbour may be made, 



298 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAYAL. 

to a certainty, for about eighty or ninety ships, and at a 
very small expense. But as the distance is so great 
between St. Michael's and Fayal, every exertion should 
be employed to make a good harbour at both islands, 
and then divide the commerce ; concentrating the trade 
of St. Mary, Tercera, St. George, and Graciosa, at Saint 
Michael's, and forming that of the Peak, of Corvo, and 
of Flores, at Fayal. This distributive plan would 
advance the general interests, and by having harbours at 
the extremities of the chain of islands, numerous lives 
and several vessels would be preserved every year. 
Whereas, at present, in certain winds, and certain weather, 
vessels are compelled to slip their cables, and run out to 
sea for safety ; many of them about half-loaded ; and some 
of them in no condition whatever for beating about on a 
lee shore. It is calculated that one-sixth of the vessels 
thus driven off never return to the islands, and that one- 
twelfth are never heard of more. But what is this to the 
Portuguese government ; to a government which interests 
itself only in the good of the souls of its subjects, but is 
entirely indifferent and regardless about their situation 
and prosperity in the present life ? It is a circumstance 
truly singular that the only harbour in all the nine islands, 
is that in the vicinity of Villa Franca, an harbour formed 
out of the island, excavated by volcanic eruptions, and 
rent asunder at one side by the shock of an earthquake, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAVAL. 299 

as if expressly to admit the sea, and save those vessels 
and their crews which so often arrive upon that coast in 
the winter leaky and distressed. One would have. thought 
that this effort of nature would have roused the sluggish 
faculties of the Portuguese : it, however, hast not, and I 
doubt much whether the volcanic harbour near Villa 
Franca is known to the Portuguese, save those who live 
within its immediate sphere or sight. 

At the time that Portugal was a naval power, and that 
her Brazil ships and their convoys frequented the port 
of Fayal, and touched at the other islands, her fleet was 
annually supplied with upwards of a thousand fine boys, 
which was not only a great augmentation of number, but 
a considerable acquisition of strength, for those boys 
being bred from their infancy, I may almost say, on the 
sea, became instantly serviceable, and in a short time 
expert sailors. This strong inclination in the youth for 
the sea-service accounts, in some measure, for the scanty 
population, and for the convents being filled with girls. 
Were the convents vacated, there would be thirty women 
for one man seen in the streets. Were these islands 
under the influence of Great Britain she would know 
how to take advantage of this disposition in the men for 
a sea-faring life. She would also know how to equalize 
the population as it regards the sexes, and bring the 

R R 



300 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAY AL. 

islands to a level with her own genius and interests 
without disturbing the balance on either side. 

In population and extent Fayal is not one third as 
considerable as Saint Michael's, nor is its production by 
any means so diversified. Wine is the staple commodity 
of Fayal : fruit of other description than the grape does 
not exceed the home consumption, and the supply of 
ships en passant. But as it is the depot of the Peak, 
and of Corvo, and Flores, it has always a supply of 
wheat, corn, and provisions for exportation, and of a 
quality that cannot be excelled. 

Fayal is just as much infested with priests as the other 
islands I have described ; it has also convents which are 
visited by the natives, and by strangers, and which, in 
fact, furnish the principal amusement of the place. I 
have abstained, latterly, from going into any detail of 
the ruling manners and principles, as I found they differ 
in a trifling degree from those of Saint Michael's, on 
which I long dwelt. There is a great uniformity in the 
character of the Portuguese. The Portuguese of all 
parts are the same. And the Portuguese of the fifteenth 
century, and him of the present day, are in principle 
and manners the same. There is one trait, however, in 
the disposition of these islanders, which is marked with 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAYAL. 301 

peculiar force at Fayal, and which it would be peculiarly- 
illiberal in me to pass over, I mean their civil and 
hospitable conduct to strangers. The hospitality of 
other countries is a matter of policy or convenience, in 
civilized Europe of the first, in savage America of the 
latter, but the hospitality of the people of the Western 
Isles is not the running account of posted or ledgered 
courtesies, or of abject necessity, it springs, like all their 
qualities, their faults, their virtues, directly from the 
heart. The heart of an Azorean is by nature mild, and 
he sympathizes ; it is tender, and he loves ; it is generous, 
and he gives ; it is social, and he is hospitable. It is 
not till his judgment is perverted, and his heart depraved 
by the superstition and enthusiasm inspired by his pro- 
fane religion and sacerdotal directors that he acquires 
that character of avarice and brutality which I have been 
compelled to attribute to him in former passages of these 
Letters. Such is the imperious dominion with which 
truth and reason wave their sceptre over my intellect, 
that no solicitation, however artful, no talent however 
commanding, can seduce it from its allegiance. In 
proportion to the humility of my submission to its rule, 
I consider that I rise into some faint emulation of that 
ineffable and presiding divinity, whose characteristic 
attribute is to be coerced and bound by the inexorable 
laws of its own nature, so as to be all-wise and all-just 

r r 2 



302 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FAYAL. 

from necessity, rather than election. This has been the 
Conviction and the sentiment which has governed me in 
this correspondence. I should not have dealt fairly with 
these honest islanders if I had called upon you to appre- 
ciate their character by any other principle, than by the 
guilt, delinquency, and degradation of their religion and 
government. The Azores were originally called les Isles 
Fortunees, or the Fortunate Islands, and truly fortunate 
will they be if Great Britain were to confer on them 
constitutional freedom, national independence, and a 
system of government founded on the enlarged and just 
notion of impartial justice, and the general and immu- 
table laws of right and wrong ; yielding indiscriminate 
and impartial happiness to all its members ; and shedding 
alike its genial influence over all its subjects. Bestow 
this system of government on the Azores, and the story 
of the Fortunate Isles will be again revived. 



LETTER XLIV, 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE FLORES. 

THE gradual steps by which I have hitherto 
Jed you to a knowledge of the Azores have brought 
my history nearly to a close ; for, the impossibility of 
obtaining a ready passage to F lores and Corvo, com- 
pelled me to abandon the idea of visiting them, and 
exposes me now to the necessity of giving you a rapid 
description of those from the testimony of others. 

The first derives its name from the multitude of 
flowers with which it was found to abound on its first 
discovery, and the second from the circumstance of its 
having been the favorite habitation of numerous flocks 
of cows at the time the Portuguese first visited the 
island. This practice of the Portuguese, of naming 
objects from the manner in which they strike the senses, 
is one that I admire very much, and to which also their 
language is peculiarly adapted. A language very sonor- 
ous, very harmonious, very emphatic, enables them to 



304 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FLORES. 

render all their ideas, and to express all their wants with 
a noble simplicity, which neither excluding the modi- 
fication of tones, nor the pantomime of the passions, 
preserves them from that superb battology which we 
call the richness of language, and which makes us lose, 
in the labyrinth of words, the justness of precision, and 
the promptitude of judgment. The Portuguese, on the 
contrary, names immediately the object which he per- 
ceives ; and the tone in which he pronounces the name 
of this object has already expressed the manner in which 
he is affected by it. A few words make a rapid con- 
versation. The operations of the soul, the movements 
of the heart, are isochronous with the first movements 
of the lips. He who speaks, and he who hears, are 
always in unison. Whereas we name objects either to 
flatter individuals, or the whimsicality of our own taste, 
consequently the object is by no means designated by 
the name ; but when I hear of islands named Graciosa, 
Flores, Corvo, Pico, &c. I comprehend something of 
their nature and qualities ; at least much better than if 
they had been called, Princess Charlotte, Lord Nelson, 
Prince Edward, Saint Vincent, &c. ; after the manner 
of British navigators : a manner I could wish had never 
been introduced to the world. 



Flores is as distant from Fayal in a north-west, as 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FLORES. 305 

St. Michael's is from Fayal in a south-east direction ; 
that is, upwards of 40 leagues ; the islands extending 
between 25 and 31 degrees West Longitude, which em- 
braces a space of upwards of 240 miles. Flores, nearly 
as large as Fayal, is of a semicircular form, and so in- 
dented with creeks and bays that it affords protection to 
ships from every quarter. Santa Cruz, and Lagens, on 
the east coast, are the two principal towns and ports. 
The government is confided to a Portuguese commander 
appointed by the governor in chief at Tercera, and in 
all other respects the ruling manners and principles are 
similar to those of the rest of the Western Isles. The 
produce consists of wheat, pulse, and poultry. The last 
esteemed the finest in the world. Cattle are numerous 
though small ; in size similar to the cattle of Alderney 
and Sark. The permanent commerce is with Fayal^ 
Madeira, and Lisbon : the casual trade is with those 
numerous vessels that fall into those seas by losing their 
longitude, and put into Flores to repair and refresh their 
crews. Instances of this kind are so numerous, parti- 
cularly with American vessels, that this traffic is both 
considerable and lucrative, and keeps the inhabitants in 
a state of activity which forms a happy relief to the " still 
life" to which they would otherwise be condemned ; for 
their insulation is such, and their situation is out of the 
track of all navigators, that, were it not for the vicissi- 



306 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF CORVO. 

tudes to which ships are subject from stress of weather, 
errors in reckoning, and other incidental circumstances, 
these islands would seldom be visits, and the inhabitants 
would know as little of the world as islander of the South 
Seas. i 

Corvo lies a few miles to the north of Flores: has 
good anchorage on the north and south shores, but is 
otherwise so inconsiderable that it is not worth any further 
notice. What superfluities it possesses it sends for transit 
to Flores, from whence it receives the small quantity [0? 
colonial produce and British goods which its wants demand. 
On the whole, these two islands are of the least conse- 
quence of all the nine ; their geographical situation being 
bad, and the excess of their produce, and their consump- 
tion of merchandize not being an object worthy of regard. 
There is, however, one point of view in which they can 
be viewed to great advantage by Great Britain. They 
could be made to serve that most expensive and destruc- 
tive of all establishments ever formed by the English 
government, I mean the establishment for felons at 
Botany -bay. I before said, in the early part of this 
correspondence, that the system of that institution is 
ruinous, and I now say that ministers are laying the 
foundation of an independent and piratical state, which 
may, ultimately, ruin our trade with China, and in many 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 307 

other respects prove injurious to the British empire. 
Whereas, since convicts must be transported somewhere, 
according to the English penal code, their transport 
could be effected to these islands without any relative 
cost, and they could, by the smallest exertions of industry, 
maintain themselves, without being, as they now are, a 
source of perpetual care and expence to government. 

If we look at this subject on a larger view it will be found 
to hold out still greater advantages. That view is, to 

vxve all the islands of the Azores subservient to this 
great plan of punishing felony and reforming criminals. 
The particular advantage attending this plan would be, 
that it would separate the offenders from each other, and 
place them so immediately under the discipline of the 
church and magistracy that they would of necessity stand 
corrected by apprehension, and soon become amended 
by example. A gang of convicts might be stationed 
at Ponto del Gada to make the harbour of which I have 
spoken. A number of female offenders could be stationed 
at the grand and azure Lakes, to manufacture hemp into 
linen, and the coarse part could be sent to St. Mary's, 
where a band of convicts could be maintained for the 
purpose of making cables and every other description of 
cordage. Tercera, St. George, Graciosa, and Pico, 
present similar accommodations and advantages, with 



308 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

this difference, that as they have few ports the means of 
escape would be more impracticable and difficult. In 
forming the harbour at Fayal a very considerable gang 
could be employed, and as all the islands stand in need 
of roads, harbours, and other improvements, the occupa- 
tion of the convict would never subside. The principal 
objection will be the facility of escape : this could be 
obviated by a rigid discipline. Besides from some of the 
islands escape would be impracticable. Graciosa has 
but two ports. St. George the same. The Peak has 
but one. Fayal no more than two, and no island ex- 
ceeding three or four. Those ports have all small towns 
and military and civil establishments ; therefore by a 
rigid discipline, a peculiar chess, and a heavy penalty to 
any person aiding escape, there would be no more local 
objection to these islands than there can be made to 
Botany Bay ; whence, by the bye, convicts are known 
to effect their escape every day. The policy and economy 
of this plan is great, I hope it will be confessed by every 
impartial person, and yet, the moral advantages to be 
derived from its adoption are greater far — so great, as to 
range beyond all ordinary conception. But these it is 
the province of the divine to point out. I shall therefore 
close this correspondence with the remark that I disclose 
this plan, and the other suggestions of these pages, with 
the view of endeavouring to do a service to my fellow- 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 309 

subjects. I have done it to the best of my understanding, 
and, without looking to the approbation of other men, 
my conscience is satisfied. What remains to be done 
concerns the British government. The ministers have 
now to determine for themselves whether they will take 
the Azores under their protection, by treaty or purchase, 
or whether they will abandon them to the slavish and 
miserable condition to which they are reduced through 
the vice and weakness of their present civil and religious 
establishments. To a generous mind there cannot be a 
doubt. The ministers owe it to God to improve the 
condition of mankind. They owe it to the Azores, 
thrown now immediately within the British sphere, to 
procure for them those rights of which they have been so 
long bereaved. They owe it to England not to suffer the 
treasures lent to Portugal to be lost. 

Such are the sentiments and ideas which naturally 
intruded themselves on my mind while in the act of ex- 
ploring these interesting islands. In their description, I 
did not conceive that they stood in need of the artificial 
attractions of eloquence, to reflect on them borrowed lustre, 
or confer on them a surreptitious importance. Subjects 
of such magnitude are in their nature sufficiently interest- 
ing, and will, doubtless, find a warm reception in the mind 



310 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

of every person ignorant of the Azores. They require 
only the unvarnished auxiliary of truth, and the simplicity 
of self-evident demonstration, to command and engage 
serious and candid attention. 

Believe me to be, 

Dear Sir, 

Your's truly, 

T. A 



DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES. 



Frontispiece . . To face the Title. 

Map of the Atlantic page 1 

Map of the Azores, or Western Islands 28 

Map of St. Michael's . , . . 43 

View of Ponta del Gada 53 

View of Villa Franca, and the Harhour formed by Volcanic 

Eruptions 80 

View of Porto do Ilheo 82 

View of the Caldeiras 116 



James Gillet, Printer, Crown-court, Fleet-strcet,London. 



